It looked thinly settled, people scarce, and business dull.

I could not get a day's work to do, and I could not go much farther on foot, for the snow was eight or ten inches deep, and I was still several hundred miles from my parents in Michigan.

So my journey farther east was delayed until spring.

The hunting season was over, and when I came into Mineral Point without a gun, and wore good clothes, making a better appearance than I used to, they seemed to think I must be rich and showed me marked attention, and made many inquiries about their neighbors who started for California about the same time I did.
The young ladies smiled pleasantly when near me, and put on their best white aprons, looking very tidy and bright, far superior to any of the ladies I had seen in my crooked route from San Francisco through Acapulco, Panama, the West Indies and along the Mississippi.
After a few days in town I went out into the neighborhood where I used to live and stopped with Mr.E.A.Hall, who used to be a neighbor of Mr.
Bennett, as he had invited me to stay with himself and wife, who were the only occupants of a good house, and all was pleasant.

But notwithstanding all the comfort in which I was placed, I grew lonesome, for the enforced idleness, on account of the stormy weather, was a new feature in my life, and grew terribly monotonous.
After some delay I concluded to write to my parents in Michigan and give them a long letter with something of a history of my travels, and to refresh my memory I got out my memorandum I had kept through all my journey.
As my letter was liable to be quite lengthy I bought a quantity of foolscap paper and begun.