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drowned while swimming or sailing, or my neck broken while stealing apples in the neighboring orchards.

My father at this time was running a stage line between Chicago and Davenport, no railroads having then been built west of Chicago. In 1849 he got the California fever and made up his mind to cross the great plains- then and for years afterward called the American desert- to the Pacific coast. He got ready a complete outfit, and started with quite a party. After proceeding a few miles, all but my father, to my great disappointment, abandoned the enterprise. They are returned home, and soon afterward father moved his family out to Walnut Grove farm, in Scott county. While living there I was sent to school, more for the purpose of being kept out of mischief than to learn anything. Much of my time was spent in trapping quails which were very plentiful. I greatly enjoyed studying the habits of the little birds, and in devising traps to take them in. I was most successful with the common figure "4" trap which I could build myself. Thus I think it was that I acquired the love of hunting. I visited the quail traps twice a day, and nearly always found game there.

There was one event which occurred in my childhood which I cannot recall without a feeling of sadness. It was the death of my brother Samuel, who was accidentally killed in his twelfth year. My father at the time, being considerable of a politician, as well as a farmer, was attending a political convention, for he was well known in those days as an old line Whig. He had been a member of the Iowa Legislature, was a Justice of the Peace, and had held other offices. He was an excellent stump speaker, and was often called upon to canvass the country round about for the different candidates. The convention which he was attending at the time of the accident was held at a cross-road tavern called Sherman's about a mile away. Samuel and I had gone out together on horseback for the cows. He rode a vicious mare, which mother had told him time and again not to ride as it had an ugly disposition. We were passing the school house just as the children were being dismissed, when Samuel undertook to give an exhibition of his horsemanship, being a good rider for a boy. The mare, Betsey, became unmanageable, reared and fell backward upon him, injuring him internally. I at once set out with my horse at the top of his speed for my father and informed him or Samuel's mishap. He took the horse and returned immediately. When I arrived at Mr. Burns's house where my brother was, I found my father, mother and sisters there, all weeping bitterly at Samuel's bedside. Samuel died the next morning. My father was a great favorite with everybody, and his death cast a gloom over the whole neighborhood. It was a great blow to all the family, and especially to father who seemed to be almost heart-