There was no halting upon the route, and, as we kept the same pace until three o’clock in the afternoon, it was beyond a question that when we reached “Kellogg’s” we had travelled at least thirty miles.  One of my greatest annoyances during the ride had been the behavior of the little beast Brunet.  He had been hitherto used as a saddle-horse, and had been accustomed to a station in the file near the guide or leader.  He did not relish being put in the background as a pack-horse, and accordingly, whenever we approached a stream, where the file broke up to permit each horseman to choose his own place of fording, it was, invariably the case that just as I was reining Jerry into the water, Brunet would come rushing past and throw himself into our very footsteps.  Plunging, snorting, and splashing me with water, and sometimes even starting Jerry into a leap aside, he more than once brought me into imminent danger of being tossed into the stream.  It was in vain that, after one or two such adventures, I learned to hold back and give the vexatious little animal the precedence.  His passion seemed to be to go into the water precisely at the moment Jerry did; and I was obliged at last to make a bargain with young Roy to dismount and hold him at every stream until I had got safely across.

“Kellogg’s"[16] was a comfortable mansion, just within the verge of a pleasant “grove of timber,” as a small forest is called by Western travellers.  We found Mrs. Kellogg a very respectable-looking matron, who soon informed us she was from the city of New York.  She appeared proud and delighted to entertain Mr. Hamilton, for whose family, she took occasion to tell us, she had, in former days, been in the habit of doing needle-work.

The worthy woman provided us an excellent dinner, and afterwards installed me in a rocking-chair beside a large fire, with the “Life of Mrs. Fletcher” to entertain me, while the gentlemen explored the premises, visited Mr. Kellogg’s stock, and took a careful look at their own.  We had intended to go to Dixon’s the same afternoon, but the snow, beginning again to fall, obliged us to content ourselves where we were.

In the mean time, finding we were journeying to Chicago, Mr. Kellogg came to the determination to accompany us, having, as he said, some business to accomplish at that place:  so Mrs. Kellogg busied herself in preparing him to set off with us the following morning.  I pleaded hard to remain yet another day, as the following was Sunday, on which I objected to travel; but in view of the necessities of the case, the uncertainty of the weather, and the importance of getting as quickly as possible through this wild country, my objections were overruled, and I could only obtain a delay in starting until so late in the afternoon as would give us just time to ride the sixteen miles to “Dixon’s” before sunset.

No great time was required for Mr. Kellogg’s preparations.  He would take, he said, only two days’ provisions, for at his brother-in-law Dixon’s we should get our supper and breakfast, and the route from there to Chicago could, he well knew, be accomplished in a day and a half.