Chapter I: Foreword

The author of this series of stories for children has endeavored simply to show why and how the descendants of the early colonists fought their way through the wilderness in search of new homes. The several narratives deal with the struggles of those adventurous people who forced their way westward, ever westward, whether in hope of gain or in answer to "the call of the wild," and who, in so doing, wrote their names with their blood across this country of ours from the Ohio to the Columbia.

To excite in the hearts of the young people of this land a desire to know more regarding the building up of this great nation, and at the same time to entertain in such a manner as may stimulate to noble deeds, is the real aim of these stories. In them there is nothing of romance, but only a careful, truthful record of the part played by children in the great battles with those forces, human as well as natural, which, for so long a time, held a vast portion of this broad land against the advance of home seekers.

With the knowledge of what has been done by our own people in our own land, surely there is no reason why one should resort to fiction in order to depict scenes of heroism, daring, and sublime disregard of suffering in nearly every form.

JAMES OTIS.

CONTENTS

PAGE

THE FUR TRADERS 9

WHY I AM NOT A FUR TRADER 11

STRIVING TO PLAN FOR THE FUTURE 13

AN INQUISITIVE STRANGER 15

AN UNEXPECTED PROPOSITION 16

I SET OUT AS A GUIDE 18

JOHN MITCHELL'S OUTFIT 20

MAKING THE BARGAIN 23

WE LEAVE ST. LOUIS 25

THE HARDSHIPS TO BE ENCOUNTERED 26

THE CAMP AT INDEPENDENCE 28

A FRONTIER TOWN 30

THE START FROM INDEPENDENCE 33

CARELESS TRAVELERS 35

OVERRUN BY WILD HORSES 38

SEARCHING FOR THE LIVE STOCK 40

ABANDONING THE MISSING ANIMALS 42

MEETING WITH OTHER EMIGRANTS 43

A TEMPEST 46

FACING THE INDIANS 49

TEACHING THE PAWNEES A LESSON 51

THE PAWNEE VILLAGE 53

A BOLD DEMAND 54