He sauntered away along the guard deck, and remained in
retirement during the rest of the voyage. He was not, after all, a
very desperate desperado.
During the next night our boat was racing with a rival craft, and one
of her engines was damaged. She had then to hop on one leg, as it
were, as far as Peoria. The Illinois river had here spread out into
a broad lake; the bank was low, there were no buildings of any kind
near the water; some of the passengers landed, and nobody came to
offer them welcome.
I stood near an English immigrant who had just brought his luggage
ashore, and was sitting on it with his wife and three children. They
looked around at the low land and wide water, and became full of
misery. The wife said:
"What are we boun' to do now, Samiul? Wheer are me and the childer
to go in this miserable lookin' place?"
Samiul: "I'm sure, Betsy, I don't know. I've nobbut hafe a dollar
left of o' my money. They said Peoria was a good place for us to
stop at, but I don't see any signs o' farmin' about here, and if I go
away to look for a job, where am I to put thee and the childer, and
the luggage and the bedding?"
"Oh!" said Betsy, beginning to cry; "I'm sorry we ever left owd
England. But thou would come, Samiul, thou knows, and this is the
end on it. Here we are in this wild country without house or home,
and wi' nothin' to eat.
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