THE SESSIONS IN THE BACKWOODS. 229 



and contented in his family circle. His young wife 

 was quite an example of household virtue: they had 

 four very fine children. He produced almost every 

 thing that he required, and though in liis youth un- 

 accustomed to hard work, he cultivated his land alone, 

 and was not behind any American in the use of his 

 axe; his cattle and pigs were among the best in the 

 place. 



AYhen first I arrived I felt very wretched and miser- 

 able, but the kind attentions of Mrs. Kelfer restored 

 me after a time ; I managed to help a little on the farm, 

 and now and then took a turn with my rifle, and shot a 

 deer or a turkey. 



The sessions were held about this time at Fourche 

 le Fave, and several advocates, some from Little Rock, 

 some from the neighborhood, assembled at Perryville, 

 and quartered themselves on the farmers. Kelfer 

 received one, who was a gentlemanly young man, and 

 he (Kelfer) had cases to settle with some of the bad 

 characters in the vicinity. There was now bustle 

 enough in the usually quiet place, and the little town 

 of Perryville, about two miles off, consisting of one 

 little shop, and the dwelling of the ferryman, who was 

 also postmaster, was the assembling place of the 

 county. 



The shop, which formed one half of the town, be- 

 longed to a German, who was too good a specimen of a 

 certain class of his countrymen to be passed by without 

 notice. Bockenheim, or as the Americans called him, 

 Buckingham, must, I should think, have been a manu- 

 facturer of birch brooms, as he showed extraordinary 

 talent for that branch of the fine arts ; but he endeav- 

 20 



