Father had a trading-wagon built, and stocked it with red blankets, beads, and other goods with which to tempt the Indians.

My only brother had been killed by a fall from a horse, so I was second in command, and proud I was of the job.
My uncle Elijah kept a general store at Weston, Missouri, just across the Kansas line.

He was a large exporter of hemp as well as a trader.
Also he was a slave-owner.
Weston was our first objective.

Father had determined to take up a claim in Kansas and to begin a new life in this stirring country.

Had he foreseen the dreadful consequences to himself and to his family of this decision we might have remained in Iowa, in which case perhaps I might have grown up an Iowa farmer, though that now seems impossible.
Thirty days of a journey that was a constant delight to me brought us to Weston, where we left the freight-wagons and mother and my sisters in the care of my uncle.
To my great joy father took me with him on his first trip into Kansas--where he was to pick out his claim and incidentally to trade with the Indians from our wagon.