I had now finished my circle and brought both ends of the long
belt together.
I now went to a drug store and weighed Mr. Evans' specimens, wrapping
each in a separate piece of paper, with the value marked on each, and
took them to his wife, to whom I told the news about her husband. In two
week's time he came home sound and well.
I was quite disappointed in regard to the looks and business appearance
of the country. It looked thinly settled, people scarce, and business
dull. I could not get a day's work to do, and I could not go much
farther on foot, for the snow was eight or ten inches deep, and I was
still several hundred miles from my parents in Michigan. So my journey
farther east was delayed until spring. The hunting season was over, and
when I came into Mineral Point without a gun, and wore good clothes,
making a better appearance than I used to, they seemed to think I must
be rich and showed me marked attention, and made many inquiries about
their neighbors who started for California about the same time I did.
The young ladies smiled pleasantly when near me, and put on their best
white aprons, looking very tidy and bright, far superior to any of the
ladies I had seen in my crooked route from San Francisco through
Acapulco, Panama, the West Indies and along the Mississippi.
After a few days in town I went out into the neighborhood where I used
to live and stopped with Mr. E.A. Hall, who used to be a neighbor of Mr.
Bennett, as he had invited me to stay with himself and wife, who were
the only occupants of a good house, and all was pleasant.
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