This West--no man had come back from it who was not eager to return to it again! For the weak and slothful it might do to remain in the older communities, to reap in the long-tilled fields, but for the strong, for the unattached, for the enterprising, this unknown, unexplored, uncertain country offered a scene whose possibilities made irresistible appeal.

For two years Franklin did the best he could at reading law in a country office.

Every time he looked out of the window he saw a white-topped wagon moving West.

Men came back and told him of this West.

Men wrote letters from the West to friends who remained in the East.