With Axe and Rifle

A young narrator recalls his childhood on a modest farm in the far‑west of Illinois, where his father—an ex‑British officer seeking a new life—has carved out a homestead beside the Ohio River. The family’s daily rhythm is colored by the surrounding prairie, dense forests, and the distant Mississippi, while the arrival of the narrator’s mother and her Irish brothers adds both warmth and occasional tension.

When Uncle Denis falls ill, the household prepares for a long trek across the corduroy road to the Ohio, taking a sturdy wagon, horses, and a handful of supplies. Along the way they meet a rough‑shod troupe of travelers, a courageous Black man who saves them from danger, and glimpse the stark world of a Kentucky plantation, where the narrator’s father wrestles with the morality of slavery. The journey blends vivid frontier scenery with the promise of adventure, setting the stage for the narrator’s early encounters with the rugged, untamed American West.