34 LIFE SKETCHES OF A JAYHAWKER 



one of the guiding lights of the church. Speaking of Pratt I might as well 

 follow him up to a finish. In 1855, by some means or other, he became 

 acquainted with a family by the name of McPlune and kept making frequent 

 visits there. They were living in San Francisco and the wife became very 

 much in love with him and he finally succeeded in having her sealed to him 

 and becoming a Spiritual wife. This was all unknown to her husband. 

 Finally McPlune became somewhat suspicious and forbid his coming there 

 any more, and it grew worse and worse. At last he concluded to leave the 

 country and removed his family to Arkansas and with the same year Pratt 

 followed up and when the man was absent from home, he abducted the wife 

 and two children. When McPlune returned some of his friends told him what 

 had happened. He took a friend or two with him and overtook the fleeing 

 party and shot Pratt from the horse he was riding and killed him. That 

 was the end of Parly P. Prat's career in the Spiritual wife business. 



On the way up the Coast with our cattle I will have to mention a little 

 incident that was a rather thrilling experience, at least for a little while. 

 One night when we were camping, one of the steers died and by morning 

 he had been entirely eaten up by the grizzly bears. There must have been 

 several of them to have eaten a whole oxen. When we were ready to start, 

 I told the boys that I would take a gun and go over the hills and perhaps I 

 might find a deer as they were plentiful. After traveling perhaps a mile 

 or so I saw a grizzly bear off in the distance digging, turning over chunks 

 to get the worms and bugs, I suppose. There happened to be a small tree 

 near the bear, and between the bear and me, the moss was grown over so 

 thick I could not see through it. In order to get a shot at the bear I turned 

 the horse a little to one side and the minute he saw the bear he jumped and 

 shied and I could do nothing with him. In the meantime the bear was 

 standing on his hind feet and his arms stretched out ready to receive com- 

 pany, and without thinking I jumped from the horse's back and let Mr. Bear 

 have it right between the out-stretched arms. I remember seeing the bear 

 hit himself with his paw, where the ball had struck him and that was all I 

 did see for a while, for the horse made off as fast as he could run and I 

 was hanging on to the rope that was around his neck. He ran for about a 

 hundred and fifty yards before stopping and as he stopped I was sure the 

 bear had me, but I arose and looked back and there the bear was making 

 off in the opposite direction, for which I was deeply grateful. I was not 

 hurt much except the wild oats had almost whipped my eyes out. I went 

 back and gathered up my gun and began to make some discoveries and 

 found a center shot had been given the bear and at every leap he had left 

 a stream of blood. I followed him for about a half mile and then he went 

 down into a deep gulch full of brush and so I gave up the chase, but I know 

 that I gave him a mortal wound. This was quite a picnic to have all alone. 



On arriving at San Jose with our cattle we were offered 18 cents per 

 pound for all we had by a San Francisco butcher. This was a good price, 

 and two of us wanted to sell and three wanted to hold on to the cattle and 

 drive them up into the mines, where we could get a great deal more for 

 them, so the minority had to submit to the majority. 



So we drove on up and stopped in the neighborhood of Sacramento and 

 looked around through the mines for a purchaser, but 16 cents was the best 

 offer we ever had and the consequence was that I sold out my interest to 



