something should offer by which to obtain one.  The reader may smile at this; and, so does Kit at this day, as he recounts the fact in his own inimitable style.  But Kit says that to obtain a woollen shirt then, was, to him, no laughing matter.  At a moment when he almost despaired of gaining employment, he received an offer to go as a teamster with an expedition bound to El Paso.  This opportunity was a chance for success not to be lost, and he closed with the proposition.  After faithfully performing his engagement, he, however, returned to Santa Fe, where he made a short stay, and then proceeded to Taos.  In this town Kit entered into the service of Mr. Ewing Young, who was a trader and trapper.  The reader may prepare again for a smile, as he will now learn that Kit became a cook.  Mr. Ewing Young has the satisfaction of boasting that the renowned Kit Carson once performed the responsible and arduous duties of a master cook in the culinary department of his establishment; and that, for these valuable services, labor, care and diligence, he gave to Kit, as a quid pro quo, his board.  In this way Kit supported himself in his straitened circumstances until the following spring.

What was the bright thought which made the bold, the ardent, the energetic Kit Carson accept this menial office?  Surely the brain metal which was so brightly polished when he set out from Howard county, Missouri, must have been sadly rusted.  Not so!  The hope which buoyed up his spirits while he attempted to rival French pastry and English beef with American venison and Buffalo meat on the table of Mr. Ewing Young, was that some trapper, or hunter, would come into Taos, their favorite place of resort; and, by being ready for an emergency, he would obtain an opportunity for gaining a permission to join them.  His intention was certainly good, but it lacked the bright crown of good intention—­success.  In the spring of 1828, much chagrined with his, so far, continued bad luck, and no prospect of gaining his object appearing, he again joined a homeward-bound party and with it, sorrowfully, started for Missouri.  But, as on the former trip homeward, he met on the route a party bound for Santa Fe.  That indomitable ingredient in his composition, an iron will, caused him once more to turn his face westward.  He joined this party and returned to Santa Fe, in order again to tempt fortune for an opportunity to reach the Rocky Mountains.  But during all these changes and counterchanges Kit had not been idle.  He had picked up considerable knowledge, and, to his other stock of accomplishments, had added the ability to speak the Spanish language.