232 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 



La Boiite looked at the dark somber mountains ere he turned 

 his back upon them for the last time. He thought of the many- 

 years he had spent beneath their rugged shadow, of the many 

 hardships he had suffered, of all his pains and perils hi those wild 

 regions. The most exciting episodes of his adventurous career, his 

 tried companions in scenes of fierce fight and bloodshed, passed in 

 review before him. A feeling of regret was creeping over him, 

 when Mary laid her hand gently on his shoulder. One single tear 

 rolled unbidden down his cheek, and he answered her inquiring 

 eyes : " I'm not sorry to leave it, Mary," he said ; but it's hard to 

 turn one's back upon old friends." 



They had a hard battle with Killbuck, in endeavoring to per- 

 suade him to accompany them to the settlements. The old 

 mountaineer shook his head. " The time," he said, " was gone 

 by for that. He had often thought of it, but, when the day ar- 

 rived, he hadn't heart to leave the mountains. Trapping noAV 

 was of no account, he knew ; but beaver was bound to rise, and 

 then the good times would come again. What could he do in the 

 settlements, where there wasn't room to move, and where it was 

 hard to breathe — there were so many people. 



He accompanied them a considerable distance down the river, 

 ever and anon looking cautiously back, to ascertain that he had 

 not gone out of sight of the mountains. Before reaching the forks, 

 however, he finally bade them adieu ; and, turning the head of 

 his old grizzled mule westward, he heartily wrung the hand of his 

 comrade La Bonte ; and, crying Yep I to his well-tried animal, 

 disappeared behind a ro]l of the prairie, and was seen no more — a 

 thousand good wishes for the welfare of the sturdy trapper speed- 

 ing him on his solitaiy way. 



Four months from the day when La Bonte so opportunely ap- 

 peared to rescue Brand's family from the Indians on Black Horse 

 Creek, that worthy and the faithful Mary were duly and lawfully 

 united m the township church of Brandville, Memphis County, 



