Carson commenced a journey of several hundred miles, with his wife and
three or four children, Kit being an infant in arms. Unfortunately we are
not informed of any of the particulars of this journey. But we know, from
numerous other cases, what was its general character.

It must have occupied two or three weeks. All the family went on foot,
making about fifteen miles a day. They probably had two pack horses, laden
with pots and kettles, and a few other essential household and farming
utensils. Early in the afternoon Mr. Carson would begin to look about for
a suitable place of encampment for the night. He would find, if possible,
the picturesque banks of some running stream, where there was grass for
his horses, and a forest growth to furnish him with wood for his cabin and
for fire. If the weather were pleasant, with the prospect of a serene and
cloudless night, a very slight protection would be reared, and the weary
family, with a buffalo robe spread on the soft grass for a blanket, would
sleep far more sweetly in the open air, than most millionaires sleep in
tapestried halls and upon beds of down.

If clouds were gathering and menacing winds were wailing through the
tree-tops, the vigorous arm of Mr. Carson, with his sharp axe, would, in
an hour, rear a camp which could bid defiance to any ordinary storm. The
roof would be so thatched, with bark and long grass, as to be quite
impenetrable by the rain. Buffalo robes, and a few of the soft and
fragrant branches of the hemlock tree, would create a couch which a prince
might envy. Perhaps, as they came along, they had shot a turkey or a brace
of ducks, or a deer, from whose fat haunches they have cut the tenderest
venison. Any one could step out with his rifle and soon return with a
supper.

While Mr. Carson, with his eldest son, was building the camp, the eldest