They would point at me, and quietly talk among themselves, and eye me very closely.

Their actions seemed very strange to me.

After the boat had proceeded some little distance, I made the acquaintance of several families from Indiana, who were _en route_ to Kansas.

A gentleman, who seemed to be the leader of these colonists, said to me, "The people of this excursion party don't seem to have any great love for you." "What does it mean ?" I asked; "What are they saying?
It's all a mystery to me." "They say that you are one of the Kansas jay-hawkers, and one of Jennison's house burners," replied the gentleman.
"I am from Kansas--that's true; and was a soldier and a scout in the Union army," said I; "and I was in Kansas during the border ruffian war of 1856.

Perhaps these people know who I am, and that explains their hard looks." I had a lengthy conversation with this gentleman--for such he seemed to be--and entertained him with several chapters of the history of the early Kansas troubles, and told him the experiences of my own family.
In the evening the Lexington folks got up a dance, but neither the Indiana people, my wife or myself were invited to join them.