One day hunters told Daniel Boone about land farther west near the great Mississippi River. "It's wild and free," they said. "There are bear and deer. There are herds of buffalo. It's the kind of land Kentucky used to be."
"That's the place for me," Boone said. "It's too crowded here. The other day I looked out of the window and saw the smoke of another man's cabin. I'll go west. I want elbow room."
And besides elbow room, he wanted land. He had always dreamed about owning a lot of land.
He was disappointed about losing his claims in Kentucky.
So Boone and his family went west. The land where they settled belonged to Spain. Later it was traded to the French and then bought by America. It is the land we now call Missouri.
The Spaniards were proud to have Daniel Boone live among them. They gave him all the land he wanted. He hunted and trapped in the new country as he had in the old. He sold the furs and skins for a good price.
Then Boone made a trip back to Kentucky. He called together all the people he had once known.
"I owed money to you when I left here," he said. "I want to pay my debts."
When he returned to his family in Missouri, Boone was a poor man again. But he had a smile on his face.
"I am a free man," he said. "I owe nothing to any man. That makes it worth being poor again."