EARLY MANHOOD IN THE MIDDLE WEST 127 



day. We took the main emigrant road, leading 

 always westward, which was already settled some- 

 what along its borders; and as the farmers were 

 accustomed and glad to entertain travellers we 

 had little difficulty in obtaining accommodations. 



On the 4th day of March, 1862, about 4 p. m., 

 we drove across the Mississippi river, at Burling- 

 ton, on the ice. We were then only one long day's 

 drive from our destination so instead of stopping 

 in Burlington we pushed on for another hour. 

 For the first time we were turned away from the 

 farmhouses not once but several times, although it 

 had begun to snow and the wind was rising to a 

 gale. By this time the baby was crying from long 

 confinement and cold, so at the next house, we did 

 not even ask for shelter but bundled out and in- 

 sisted upon being taken in. In the dark we had not 

 seen that it was a tavern but it proved to be a de- 

 lightful one ; and the next day, a little after noon, 

 we arrived at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, and were 

 among friends. Notwithstanding the predictions 

 of our friends in Indiana it had been a very com- 

 fortable journey; and an instructive one also, al- 

 though I did not fully digest all the ideas I picked 

 up until afterward. 



In a few days I rented forty acres of land ad- 

 joining the town limits of Mount Pleasant, which 



