train any longer than we want to. If we stay till next fall with our train we can make one hundred and twenty-five Dollars pr month apiece.... Wheat is worth here at present from ten to twelve Dollars pr Bu.
Jan. 12th.
I received two letters from you last evening . . . one from Father of Nov. 6th and one from Mother Nov. 12th. . . . I don't want you to think hard of me for putting off coming till fall for I don't want to come back to Covington without some money to start me in some business for it is very hard for one to get a start with nothing at all. If I stay in this country till next fall I think I can come home in September with at least twenty-five Hundred Dollars and maybe three thousand and that will give me a good start. I will send some money home as soon as we make another trip or two which will make us an overplus. ... I expect Kate thinks I am a neglectful Brother.
Tice, now a stalwart young man of 22, was becoming involved in various enterprises. He did not regard himself as established in the west, however, but thought of Covington, Indiana, as home. Like many another on the frontier, he dreamed of securing a competence and then returning to the old familiar scenes. The "wages" so frequently mentioned were dividends, or profits. The gold-miner speaks of his claim as paying, or not paying, him "wages."
In the following letter, Tice mentions seeing salt water for the first time at Crescent City, California. This being the case, it is evident that he was not previously at Port Orford, as he had once expected to be.
The pack trail from Jacksonville (near Medford) to Crescent City led generally southwest through a wild and rugged country.
Dear Father and Mother,
... I have just got in from the Coast—Crescent City—with a load of goods for a Merchant of this place, and expect to start back tomorrow. I have seen the salt water for the first time. We have fifteen mules now and are making good wages. Clear about twenty-five dollars on a mule. It is a little over one hundred miles from here to Crescent City. We make the trip in
