"And when you start," said she, "if you want some one to cook and take
care of you, let me know. I like traveling."

I turned red at this; and halted and mumbled, until she tripped away,
laughing, but looking back at me; but I remembered what she had said,
and within a week I had consented that Jackway be appointed guardian _ad
litem_ for me in the court proceedings; and in a short time I received a
good team of mares, a bay named Fanny and a sorrel named Flora, good,
twelve hundred pound chunks, but thin in flesh--I would not take
geldings--a wagon, nearly new, a set of wagon bows, enough heavy
drilling to make a cover, some bedding, a stove, an old double-barreled
shotgun, two pounds of powder and a lot of shot, harness for the team,
horse-feed, and as complete an outfit as I could think of, even to the
box of axle-grease swinging under the wagon-box. Rucker groaned at every
addition; and finally balked when I asked him for a hundred dollars in
cash. The court entered up the proper decree, I put my deeds in my
pocket, and after making a feed-box for the horses to hang on the back
of the wagon-box, I pulled out for Iowa three weeks too soon--for the
roads were not yet settled.



5

The night before I started, I sat in the warm barroom, half pleased and
half frightened at the new world into which I was about to enter,
thinking of my new wagon and the complete equipage of emigration now
shown to be mine by the bills of sale and deeds in my pocket, and
occasionally putting my fingers to my nose to catch the good smell of