We encamped about three miles from Springfield on Spring Creek. Frederick G. Williams and Almon W. {77} Babbitt returned to the camp with two kegs of powder, and reported that the people were somewhat excited, more however from a curiosity to know where we were going than from a desire to hinder us. A brother came to see us with the news that my brother Hyrum had passed on west the day before with a company, about fifty miles north of us, saying, "he has a fine company, and they all look mighty pert." I asked him to accompany us to Missouri, but he replied, "I cannot." He went and stayed at a tavern over night with the spies, who said they followed us three hundred miles on purpose to take some advantage of us. [Sidenote: Arrival at Jacksonville, Illinois.] _Saturday, May 31_.--In the morning this brother came to me and said: "I would be mighty glad to go with you, but my business is such I cannot. Will a hundred dollars do you any good?" I replied, "Yes, it will, for we are short of money." He immediately remounted his horse and rode to Springfield, and within an hour after the camp had started he returned and said to me: "I am mighty sorry I cannot go with you. Here is a hundred dollars, and if I had had a few days' notice I could have got more." At noon we halted for dinner. A man, apparently drunk, came to the camp and said he had a large farm and forty cows a little way ahead, and if we would go there, he would give us all we wanted to eat and drink, feed our horses, etc. But I soon discovered that he was more sober than drunk, and that he was probably a spy. Near night we arrived at a small stream of water about one mile from Jacksonville, where we found a pawpaw bush in the road, which had been dropped by Dr. Frederick G. Williams as a signal for us to camp. I had sent Dr. Williams forward in the morning on horseback to select a camp ground and watch the movements of our enemies. We pitched our tents in the place he had selected. Agreeable to my instructions, about sunset Brother Roger Orton proclaimed aloud that there would be {78} preaching under the trees within the camp at half-past ten o'clock on the morrow. There was only one stranger in the camp to hear the appointment. Dr. Williams had gone on to Jacksonville with his pill bags to spend the night. [Sidenote: A Puzzling Religious Service.]