Boone, quite exhausted, drank some of her blood to allay his
thirst, pillowed his head upon her body, and fell into a deep sleep.
The next morning Boone, after having made a good meal off one of the
cubs, started to rejoin his companions, and communicated to them his
adventure and discovery. A short time afterwards, the cave was stored
with all the articles necessary to a trapper's life, and soon became the
rendezvous of all the adventurous men from the banks of the river Platte
to the shores of the Great Salt Lake.
Since Boone had settled in his present abode, he had had a hand-to-hand
fight with a black bear, in the very room where we were sitting. When he
had built his log cabin, it was with the intention of taking to himself
a wife. At that time he courted the daughter of one of the old Arkansas
settlers, and he wished to have "a place and a crop on foot" before he
married. The girl was killed by the fall of a tree, and Boone, in his
sorrow, sent away the men whom he had hired to help him in "turning his
field," for he wished to be alone.
Months elapsed, and his crop of corn promised an abundant harvest; but
he cared not. He would take his rifle and remain sometimes for a month
in the woods, brooding over his loss. The season was far advanced, when,
one day returning home, he perceived that the bears, the squirrels, and
the deer had made rather free with the golden ears of his corn.
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