CHAPTER II.

Boone removes to the head waters of the Yadkin river--He meets with
Finley, who had crossed the mountains into Tennessee--They agree to
explore the wilderness west of the Alleghanies together.


After his marriage, Boone's first step was to consider where he should
find a place, in which he could unite the advantages of fields to
cultivate, and range for hunting. True to the impulse of his nature, he
plunged deeper into the wilderness, to realize this dream of comfort and
happiness. Leaving his wife, he visited the unsettled regions of North
Carolina, and selected a spot near the head waters of the Yadkin, for
his future home.

The same spirit that afterwards operated to take Mrs. Boone to Kentucky,
now led her to leave her friends, and follow her husband to a region
where she was an entire stranger. Men change their place of abode from
ambition or interest; women from affection. In the course of a few
months, Daniel Boone had reared comfortable cabins upon a pleasant
eminence at a little distance from the river bank, inclosed a field, and
gathered around him the means of abundance and enjoyment. His dwelling,
though of rude exterior, offered the weary traveller shelter, a cheerful
fire, and a plentiful board, graced with the most cordial welcome. The
faces that looked on him were free from the cloud of care, the
constraint of ceremony, and the distrust and fear, with which men learn