The profession of arms was scarcely known or heard of.

Few people manifested any interest in the life of the Far West.

I had, while there, felt out of touch with my oldest friends.

Only my darling old uncle, a brave old whaling captain, had said: "Mattie, I am much interested in all you have written us about Arizona; come right down below and show me on the dining-room map just where you went." Gladly I followed him down the stairs, and he took his pencil out and began to trace.

After he had crossed the Mississippi, there did not seem to be anything but blank country, and I could not find Arizona, and it was written in large letters across the entire half of this antique map, "Unexplored." "True enough," he laughed.