His eyes were black and very piercing; and his voice rolled like thunder when he grew earnest--which he was likely to do whenever he spoke.

He would begin to discuss my cows, the principles of farming, the sky, the birds of passage, the flowers, the sucking in of the Dutchman--which I told him all about before we had gone five miles--the mire-holes in the slews, anything at all--and rising from a joke or a flighty notion which he earnestly advocated, he would lower his voice and elevate his language and utter a little gem of an oration.

After which he would be still and solemn for a while--to let it sink in I thought.
N.V.was at that time twenty-seven years old.

He; came from Evansville, Indiana, by the Ohio from Evansville to St.Louis, and thence up the Mississippi.

From Dubuque he had partly walked and partly ridden with people who were willing to give him a lift.
"I am like unto the Apostle Peter," he said when he asked for the chance to ride with me, "silver and gold have I none; but such as I have I give unto thee." "What do you mean ?" I asked; for it is just as well always to be sure beforehand when it comes to pay-though, of course, I should have been glad to have him with me without money and without price.
"In the golden future of Iowa," he said, "you will occasionally want legal advice.