326 MEN I HAVE FISHED WITH. 



thing ought to be done to them like baking or frying 

 or " 



"Betcher didn't know but what they were just cut up 

 in vinegar like cucumbers, just as I thought. Betcher 

 Mrs. Howell will spread that story, an' every woman up 

 both rivers will know the beet story before a week. 

 Well, let 'em. There's a whole mess of things that they 

 don't know. How in Gibraltar do they s'pose a fellow is 

 to know that the tender beets that he finds on the table 

 have been boiled, any more than the cucumbers have 

 been boiled?" 



The slavery troubles, which had partly subsided, be- 

 gan to break out afresh, and it was evident that another 

 great effort to make Kansas a slave State would be made. 

 Congress had already abrogated the Missouri Compro- 

 mise, and this opened the Territories of Kansas and Ne- 

 braska to the slave power, as it left the question to be 

 decided by the actual settlers. Two conflicting Terri- 

 torial governments had been established. Blood had 

 been shed at the first election, when armed invaders had 

 taken possession of the polls and elected a lot of non- 

 resident pro-slavery men as a Legislature, which passed 

 a law making it a capital offence to harbor or assist run- 

 away slaves; and they had the backing of President 

 Buchanan, and the support of General Harney, then in 

 command at Fort Leavenworth. But against this was a 

 great majority, who had determined that Kansas should 

 enter the Union as a free State or not at all. 



Our section was comparatively quiet. We were run- 

 ning short on provisions, and, as the staple articles were 

 costly owing to the long haul by teams, we would take 

 our teams to Fort Leavenworth, lay in half a dozen bags 

 of flour it came in one hundred pound bags sugar, 

 coffee, pork, bacon and other things, saving the trans- 



