AN EMIGRANT. 133 



little all, between whom and myself, and while the wag 

 gons were being lifted, there had commenced a sudden 

 friendship, originated, perhaps, from my having more 

 attention paid me than he had, from our having a com 

 mon interest in the waggons, or from my taking rather 

 an active part among the crew in sharply reprehending 

 any unnecessarily rough usage. After the location of 

 our waggons on the upper deck, and during the voyage, 

 he often lamented that we were not to take the plains at 

 the same place, and travel together for mutual safety 

 and pleasure. Poor fellow, he had reason to be more 

 thoughtful than I had, for he had a wife and two chil 

 dren, as well as all he possessed in the world, to take 

 care of, and we were about to cross the prairies in a 

 troublous time. May Heaven grant that he has come to 

 no harm ! This man was a true specimen of the frontier 

 settler, in mind, address, and figure. Tall, taller than I 

 am, high-shouldered, and cadaverous-looking, the large 

 bony frame of a man with the muscular portions fallen 

 away, or wanting that roundness which makes the 

 human figure beautiful. In manner frank, mild, good* 

 humoured, and obliging, with a lively appreciation of 

 anything manly he observed in another, and, I am sure, 

 a readiness to stand by his friend in any amount of 

 danger. To this he added a virtue not generally 

 remarkable in men of his class in America, and that 

 was, that from the first he put on no familiar ostentatious 

 assumption of equality. He was respectful, but at the 

 same time manly and straightforward, and it seemed as 

 if we each were known to the other in a moment. 

 What an immense benefit numbers of the New York 

 tradesmen, as well as hotel-keepers generally throughout 

 the United States, would have obtained from the study 



