“By the powers, but it was an event! Such a thing had never before been seen in Kentucky. Bob Tarleton, a strapping fellow, with a head like a chestnut-burr and a look like a boar in an apple orchard, stepped up, caught hold of the looking-glass of one of the girls, and gazing at it for a moment, cried out: ‘Joe Taylor, come here! come here! I’ll be darn’d if Patty Schultz ain’t got a locket that you can see your face in, as clear as in a spring of water!’
“In a twinkling all the young hunters gathered round old Schultz’s daughters. I, who knew what looking-glasses were, did not budge. Some of the girls who sat near me were excessively mortified at finding themselves thus deserted. I heard Peggy Pugh say to Sally Pigman, ‘Goodness knows, it’s well Schultz’s daughters is got them things round their necks, for it’s the first time the young men crowded round them!’
“I saw immediately the danger of the case. We were a small community, and could not afford to be split up by feuds. So I stepped up to the girls, and whispered to them: ‘Polly,’ said I, ‘those lockets are powerful fine, and become you amazingly; but you don’t consider that the country is not advanced enough in these parts for such things. You and I understand these matters, but these people don’t. Fine things like these may do very well in the old settlements, but they won’t answer at the Pigeon Roost Fork of the Muddy. You had better lay them aside for the present, or we shall have no peace.’
“Polly and her sister luckily saw their error; they took off the lockets, laid them aside, and harmony was restored: otherwise, I verily believe there would have been an end of our community. Indeed, notwithstanding the great sacrifice they made on this occasion, I do not think old Schultz’s daughters were ever much liked afterward among the young women.
“This was the first time that looking-glasses were ever seen in the Green River part of Kentucky.
“I had now lived some time with old Miller, and had become a tolerably expert hunter. Game, however, began to grow scarce. The buffalo had gathered together, as if by universal understanding, and had crossed the Mississippi, never to return. Strangers kept pouring into the country, clearing away the forests and building in all directions. The hunters began to grow restive. Jemmy Kiel, the same of whom I have already spoken for his skill in raccoon catching, came to me one day: ‘I can’t stand this any longer,’ said he; ‘we’re getting too thick here. Simon Schultz crowds me so that I have no comfort of my life.’
“‘Why, how you talk!’ said I; ‘Simon Schultz lives twelve miles off.’
“‘No matter; his cattle run with mine, and I’ve no idea of living where another man’s cattle can run with mine. That’s too close neighborhood; I want elbow-room. This country, too, is growing too poor to live in; there’s no game; so two or three of us have made up our minds to follow the buffalo to the Missouri, and we should like to have you of the party.’ Other hunters of my acquaintance talked in the same manner. This set me thinking; but the more I thought the more I was perplexed. I had no one to advise with; old Miller and his associates knew but of one mode of life, and I had had no experience in any other; but I had a wide scope of thought. When out hunting alone I used to forget the sport, and sit for hours together on the trunk of a tree, with rifle in hand, buried in thought, and debating with myself: ‘Shall I go with Jemmy Kiel and his company, or shall I remain here? If I remain here there will soon be nothing left to hunt; but am I to be a hunter all my life? Have not I something more in me than to be carrying a rifle on my shoulder, day after day, and dodging about after bears, and deer, and other brute beasts?’ My vanity told me I had; and I called to mind my boyish boast to my sister, that I would never return home until I returned a member of Congress from Kentucky; but was this the way to fit myself for such a station?
“Various plans passed through my mind, but they were abandoned almost as soon as formed. At length I determined on becoming a lawyer. True it is, I knew almost nothing. I had left school before I had learned beyond the ‘rule of three.’ ‘Never mind,’ said I to myself, resolutely; ‘I am a terrible fellow for hanging on to anything when I’ve once made up my mind; and if a man has but ordinary capacity, and will set to work with heart and soul, and stick to it, he can do almost anything.’ With this maxim, which has been pretty much my mainstay throughout life, I fortified myself in my determination to attempt the law. But how was I to set about it? I must quit this forest life, and go to one or other of the towns, where I might be able to study, and to attend the courts. This too required funds. I examined into the state of my finances. The purse given me by my father had remained untouched, in the bottom of an old chest up in the loft, for money was scarcely needed in these parts. I had bargained away the skins acquired in hunting for a horse and various other matters, on which in case of need I could raise funds. I therefore thought I could make shift to maintain myself until I was fitted for the bar.
“I informed my worthy host and patron, old Miller, of my plan. He shook his head at my turning my back upon the woods, when I was in a fair way of making a first-rate hunter; but he made no effort to dissuade me. I accordingly set off in September, on horseback, intending to visit Lexington, Frankfort, and other of the principal towns, in search of a favorable place to prosecute my studies. My choice was made sooner than I expected. I had put up one night at Bardstown, and found, on inquiry, that I could get comfortable board and accommodation in a private family for a dollar and a half a week. I liked the place, and resolved to look no further. So the next morning I prepared to turn my face homeward, and take my final leave of forest life.