CHAPTER I.

A BOY ESCAPES A TYRANT AND PAYS A DEBT WITH A HORNET'S NEST--MEETS
KIT CARSON AND BECOMES THE OWNER OF A PONY AND A GUN.

The old saying that truth is stranger than fiction is emphasized
in the life of every man whose career has been one of adventure
and danger in the pursuit of a livelihood. Knowing nothing of the
art of fiction and but little of any sort of literature; having
been brought up in the severe school of nature, which is all
truth, and having had as instructor in my calling a man who was
singularly and famously truthful, truth has been my inheritance
and in this book I bequeath it to my readers.

My name is William F. Drannan, and I was born on the Atlantic
ocean January 30, 1832, while my parents were emigrating from
France to the United States.

They settled in Tennessee, near Nashville, and lived upon a farm
until I was about four years old. An epidemic of cholera prevailed
in that region for some months during that time and my parents
died of the dread disease, leaving myself and a little sister,
seven months old, orphans.

I have never known what became of my sister, nor do I know how I
came to fall into the hands of a man named Drake, having been too