106 EARLY DAY STORIES. 



cold and growing colder all the time, so that we were both 

 glad to go afoot most of the day. Toward night the weath- 

 er cleared, but the northwest wind continued to blow strong, 

 and the cold to increase. Coming to the Cedar valley several 

 miles above the place where Spalding now stands, we found 

 a sod house and stable, the last up the valley at that time. 

 The weather had become so very cold, and there being no 

 good camping place close by, we asked for lodgings for the 

 night and were refused. This was a surprise, because at 

 that early day a stranger was supposed to be always wel- 

 come. The place was occupied by two young men, recently 

 from the east, who were not yet used to the ways of our 

 western world. The case was argued for a little while and 

 finally reluctant consent to remain over night was given 

 Before bed time we had become acquainted and were good 

 friends. The next morning we were invited to stay until 

 the weather moderated. At that time the mercury fell to 

 twenty-two degrees below zero, so I afterwards learned, 

 and the northwest wind did not fail us. We stayed two 

 days and three nights during which time I did some hunt- 

 ing in the rough hills nearby, but without result except 

 that it furnished exercise and an appetite. 



The third morning, the weather having moderated, we 

 pulled out up the river valley to the northwest. There was 

 no sign of a road, nor had there been since crossing Beaver 

 creek at Whipple's Ford in Boone county, a few miles above 

 the present village of Loretto. We did not stop to hunt 

 at all, nor did we see many signs of game until the middle 

 of the afternoon when six or eight miles above the present 

 village of Ericson, in Wheeler county, a white-tail doe 

 jumped out of the tall slough grass near the river and stop- 

 ped to look. She waited too long, for one shot brought her 

 down. Going on a short distance, a black-tail buck was 

 seen in the low sand dunes about half a mile away. It was 

 not yet camping time, but as it would take some time to try 



