Having little means, he obtained a second hand light wagon and harness and a pair of dilapidated mules. With this outfit he began a journey of three thousand miles through an Indian infested and mountainous region. One of the mules had in its young days injured one front leg, and it lacked about three inches of being the length of the other. To overcome this, he invented a raised shoe -- a shoe which made up the height necessary that the mule might walk on an even keel, so to speak. When near the state line of Nebraska and Wyoming, Mr. Weller's mule died. In 1900 while grading for the Burlington railroad, Hugh Johnson and Perry Hayes excavated the old raised shoe still attached to the hoof.

This event testified to two things : one, that men would take almost incredible chances in those days ; and second, that this Oregon emigrant trailed along the north side of the river.

CHAPTR XVIII JULESBURG BURNED-- MUD SPRINGS ATTACKED-- BATTLE ON CEDAR CREEK

Considerable trouble during the winter of 1864-1865 seemed to break in from the south, particularly along the route frorq Cottonwood to Denver, and was believed to be largely the work of prompting of Arapahoes and Cheyennes, but there were some Sioux mixed up in the affairs. It was determined to burn the prairie south of the "South River," and thus drive the Indians to the Arkansas for food for their horses, as well as for game.

So, one night when there was a strong north wind blowing, tires were set out, and for two hundred miles a sheet of flame swept the country from the South Platte river, for a long distance to the southward. It was a magnificent pyrotechnic display, but as war strategy, it failed of the puqjose.