the time of his birth an almost pathless wilderness, rich with game, and
along its river banks the grasses grew so luxuriant that it invited
settlers to settle there and build homes out of the trees which grew in
such profusion. Small gardens were cultivated where corn, beans, onions
and a few other vegetables were raised, but families subsisted, for the
most part, on game with which the forests abound, and the lakes and
rivers were alive with fish. Wild geese, ducks, turkeys, quail and
pigeons swept through the air with perfect freedom. Deer, antelope,
moose, beaver, wolves, catamount and even grizzly bear often visited the
scene of the settler's home, among whom was our friend, Kit Carson.

Kit Carson had no education. There were no schools to attend other than
the school of "trapping," and he became a trapper and Indian guide and
interpreter.

When Kit was a small boy his father moved, on foot, so history relates,
to Missouri. At the time of the move, however, there was no state or
even territory of Missouri. France had ceded to the United States the
unexplored regions which were in 1800 called Upper Louisiana.

Kit's father had a few white friends, trappers and hunters, but the
Indians were numerous. Mr. Carson, together with the other white
families, banded themselves together and built a large log house, so
fashioned as to be both a house and a fort if occasion demanded them to
fortify against a possible foe. The building was one story high, having
port holes through which the muzzles of rifles could be thrust. As
additional precaution they built palisades around the house. This house
was built in what is now Howard County, Missouri, north of the Missouri
river. Christopher Carson at fifteen years of age had never been to
school a day, but he was "one of the Four Hundred" equal to any man in