Evans gave me most of his money and all of his gold specimens to take to his wife, and when he got well he would follow us.

We bade him good-bye, and with many wishes for his speedy recovery, we took passage on a steamer for St.Louis.This steamer, the Atlantic, proved to be a real floating palace in all respects.

The table was supplied with everything the country afforded, and polite and well-dressed darkies were numerous as table waiters.

This was the most pleasant trip I had ever taken, and I could not help comparing the luxuriance of my coming home to the hardships of the outward journey across the plains, and our starvation fare.
Our boat was rather large for the stage of water this time of year, and we proceeded rather slowly, but I cared little for speed as bed and board were extra good, and a first cabin passage in the company of friends, many of whom were going to the same part of Wisconsin as myself, was not a tedious affair by any means.
At night gambling was carried on very extensively, and money changed hands freely as the result of sundry games of poker, which was the popular game.
We reached St.Louis in time, and here was the end of our boat's run.
The river had some ice floating on its surface, and this plainly told us that we were likely to meet more ice and colder weather as we went north.

We concluded to take the Illinois River boat from here to Peoria, and paid our passage and stepped on board.