"No,  I  hardly  think  so;  but  since  the  old  ferry  was  aban
doned,  communication  has  been  cut  off,  so  that  they  might  be
there  and  we  not  know  it."

When  I  learned  of  the  close  proximity  of  Black  Hawk's
former  home,  I  determined  to  pay  it  a  visit,  not  doubting  but
what  I  could  find  it  from  Mrs.  Blake's  account.  This  chance
happily  occurred  the  next  day  when  trying  a  horse;  for  being
carried  near  the  river  before  I  could  bring  the  animal  under
control,  I  determined  to  go  on,  and  doing  so,  soon  came  to
the  edge  of  a  great  bluff,  from  whence  I  looked  down  on  the
river  across  a  plain  that  intervened.  Hastening  on,  strangely
moved,  I  knew  not  why,  yet  conscious  that  everything
I  saw  was  familiar  to  me,  I  cried  aloud  in  surprise  and  terror
on  reaching  the  shore  to  find  myself  on  the  spot  where  I  had
emerged  from  the  water  that  fatal  day  when  we  were  all
thrown  into  the  foaming  river  together.  This,  then,  was  the
abandoned  ferry  about  which  I  had  so  often  heard,  and  how
strange  that  I  should  have  lived  so  near  the  spot  and  not  have
known  it.  Yet  not  strange,  for  at  what  point  we  had  crossed
I  did  not  know,  only  that  some  one  had  called  it  Tip  Top,
but  whether  seriously  or  in  play  I  did  not  know.
