Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustration. See 63205-h.htm or 63205-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/63205/63205-h/63205-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/63205/63205-h.zip) [Illustration] A BOY'S TRIP ACROSS THE PLAINS. by LAURA PRESTON, Author of "Youth's History of California." New York: A. Roman & Company, Publishers. San Francisco: 417 and 419 Montgomery Street. 1868. Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1868, by A. Roman & Company, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States For the Southern District of New York. TO LOUIS AND MARY, THE ELDEST OF A BEVY OF NEPHEWS AND NIECES, THIS LITTLE WORK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED, WITH THE HOPE THAT AS IT HAS ALREADY RECEIVED THEIR FAVORABLE CRITICISM, IT MAY MEET THAT OF ALL YOUTHFUL LOVERS OF ADVENTURE. San Francisco, _June, 1868_. A BOY'S TRIP ACROSS THE PLAINS. BY LAURA PRESTON. CHAPTER I. In the village of W----, in western Missouri, lived Mrs. Loring and her son Guy, a little boy about ten years old. They were very poor, for though Mr. Loring, during his life time was considered rich, and his wife and child had always lived comfortably, after his death, which occurred when Guy was about eight years old, they found that there were so many people to whom Mr. Loring owed money, that when the debts were paid there was but little left for the widow and her only child. That would not have been so bad had they had friends able or willing to assist them, but Mrs. Loring found that most of her friends had gone with her wealth, which, I am sorry to say, is apt to be the case the world over. As I have said, when Mrs. Loring became a widow she was both poor and friendless, she was also very delicate. She had never worked in her life, and although she attempted to do so, in order to support herself and little Guy, she found it almost impossible to earn enough to supply them with food. She opened a little school, but could get only a few scholars, and they paid her so little that she was obliged also to take in sewing. This displeased the parents of her pupils and they took away their children, saying "she could not do two things at once."