There have been so many books put upon the market, purporting to
be the lives of noted frontiersmen which are only fiction, that I
am moved to ask the reader to consider well before condemning this
book as such.

The author starts out with the most notable events of his boyhood
days, among them his troubles with an old negro virago, wherein he
gets his revenge by throwing a nest of lively hornets under her
feet. Then come his flight and a trip, to St. Louis, hundreds of
miles on foot, his accidental meeting with that most eminent man
of his class, Kit Carson, who takes the lad into his care and
treats him as a kind father would a son. He then proceeds to give
a minute description of his first trip on the plains, where he
meets and associates with such noted plainsmen as Gen. John
Charles Fremont, James Beckwith, Jim Bridger and others, and gives
incidents of his association with them in scouting, trapping,
hunting big game, Indian fighting, etc.

The author also gives brief sketches of the springing into
existence of many of the noted cities of the West, and the
incidents connected therewith that have never been written before.
There is also a faithful recital of his many years of scouting for
such famous Indian fighters as Gen. Crook, Gen. Connor, Col.
Elliott, Gen. Wheaton and others, all of which will be of more
than passing interest to those who can be entertained by the early
history of the western part of our great republic.

This work also gives an insight into the lives of the hardy
pioneers of the far West, and the many trials and hardships they
had to undergo in blazing the trail and hewing the way to one of