I remained at the home of Mr. Allen a few days, making frequent visits, you may be sure, to the camp of my friends.  I then returned to our camp at the hot springs.  My brother had become quite strong and my other brother then decided to return to the valley.  Left alone, we indulged in long rambles in the mountains.  Taking a pair of blankets each, and baking up a lot of bread, we would strike out.  We never knew where we were going, but wandered wherever fancy led.  These tramps often lasted a week or ten days.  If our bread gave out we simply went without bread until our return to camp.  During one of these trips we ascended one of the Three Sisters, snow mountains standing together and reaching to the realms of the clouds.  Like mighty sentinels, white as the driven snow, they constitute one of the grandest sights to be seen on this or any other continent.  To the north of these mountains and in a valley formed by the angle of the three mountains, we explored the largest glacier to be found in the United States.  In this manner the months wore away until the approach of the fall storms admonished us that our wandering life must come to a close, but we had found that which we sought, perfect health.  When we went to the mountains in the spring my brother weighed 84 pounds, and when we reached Eugene City on our return he weighed 165, nearly doubling his weight.  I had also gained heavily, in fact, nearly 50 pounds.  I mention this that others seeking that most precious of all blessings, perfect health, may know how and where to find it—­by simply going back to nature.

Soon after my return to civilization I embarked in my first newspaper venture.  I was employed in the office as compositor and foreman and at the expiration of the first month had to take the “plant, fixtures and good will,” for my pay.  In fact, I was given the office on a promise to run the paper and keep it alive.  I so far succeeded that after a year and a half I sold out, clearing $1200.  The paper, the Eugene City Guard, is still in existence.

From there I went to Roseburg and started the Plaindealer.  In this I had the moral support and hearty good will of General Joseph Lane, as well as other citizens of the county.  My success was phenomenal, my subscription list running up to 1200 in two years.  But as in all else in this world, success was not attained without gaining the enmity and bitter hatred of my would-be rivals in business.  Theirs was an old established paper, conducted by two brothers, Henry and Thomas Gale.  They soon saw their business slipping away and sought to regain it by indulging in abuse of the coarsest character.  I paid no further attention to their attacks than to occasionally poke fun at them.  One Saturday evening I met one of the brothers in the post office.  He began an abusive harangue and attempted to draw a pistol.  I quickly caught his hand and struck him in the face.  Bystanders separated us and he left.  I was repeatedly