THE WOLF HUNTERS 



Tom having served three enlistments — fifteen 

 years — and Jack two, while I had only five years' 

 service as a soldier to my credit, I was considered 

 a raw recruit and usually listened while they 

 talked. When in a musical mood. Jack got out 

 his fiddle and played and sang. 



We seldom lit a candle at night, for we had 

 only one box of candles and knew that before 

 us were many long winter evenings when lights 

 would be more needed than now. We had found, 

 rolled up in the tent, an infantry bayonet — the 

 best kind of a camp candlestick. When we had 

 occasion to light a candle we appreciated its 

 convenience. 



Since we first came from the plains into the 

 Kansas settlements we had heard much said about 

 jayhawkers. The term jayhawking as used then 

 was a modified expression for theft or robbery, 

 but was applied more particularly to the depre- 

 dations of gangs of armed and mounted ruffians, 

 who, taking advantage of the turbulent condition 

 of affairs resulting from the war — the civil law 

 being impotent or altogether lacking in many 

 parts of the scattering settlements of Kansas — 

 roamed at will through the country, hovering es- 

 pecially along main thoroughfares and helping 

 themselves to other people's property. Some- 

 times they professed to be volunteer soldiers or 

 government agents sent out to gather in good 

 horses, mules, or other property for the use of 



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