post about two feet above the floor on each of two sides, so that the other end of each of the two sticks could be fastened in the opposite wall. Clapboards were laid across these and thus the bed made complete. Guests were given this bed, while the family disposed of themselves in another corner of the room or in the "loft." When several guests were on hand at once they were sometimes kept over night in the following manner: When bedtime came the men were requested to step out of doors while the women spread out a broad bed upon the mid-floor and put themselves to bed in the center. The signal was given and the men came in and each took his place in bed next his own wife, and the single men outside beyond them again. COOKING. To witness the various processes of cooking in those days would alike surprise and amuse those who have grown up since cooking stoves and ranges came into use. Kettles were hung over the large fire, suspended with pot hooks, iron or wooden, on the crane, or on poles, one end of which would rest upon a chain. The long handled frying pan was used for cooking meat. It was either held over the blaze by hand or set down upon coals drawn out upon the hearth. This pan was also used for baking pancakes, also called "flap jacks,” batter cakes, etc. A better article for this, however, was the cast iron spider, or Dutch skillet. The best thing for baking bread those days, and possibly even in these latter days, was the flat bottomed bake kettle, of greater depth, with closely fitting cast iron cover, and commonly known as the Dutch oven. With coals over and under it bread and biscuit would quickly and nicely bake. Turkey and spare-ribs were sometimes roasted before the fire, suspended by a string, a dish being placed underneath to catch the drippings. Hominy and samp were very much used. The hominy, however, was generally hulled corn-boiled corn from which the hull or bran had been taken by hot lye, hence sometimes called "lye hominy." True hominy and samp were made of pounded corn. A popular method of making this, as well as real meal for bread, was to cut out or burn a large hole in the top of a huge stump in the shape of a mortar and pounding the corn in this by a maul or beetle suspended by a swing pole like a well sweep. This and the well sweep consisted of a pole twenty to thirty feet long fixed in an upright fork so that it could be worked, "teeter" fashion. It was a rapid and simple way of drawing water. When the samp was sufficiently pounded it was taken out, the bran floated off, and the delicious grain boiled like rice. The chief articles of diet in an early day were corn bread, hominy or samp, venison, pork, honey, pumpkin (dried pumpkin for more than half the year), turkey, prairie chicken, squirrel and some other game, with a few additional vegetables a portion of the year. Wheat bread, tea, coffee and fruit were luxuries not to be indulged in except on special occasions, as when visitors were present. WOMEN'S WORK. Besides cooking in the manner described, the women had many other arduous duties to perform, chief of which was spinning. The "big wheel" was used for 1 spinning yarn and the "little wheel" for spinning flax. These stringed instruments furnished the principal music of the family, and were operated by our mothers and grandmothers with great skill, attained without pecuniary expense, and with far less practice than is necessary for the girls of our period to acquire a skillful use of their costly and elegant instruments. But those wheels, indispensable many years ago, are all now superseded by the mighty factories which overspread the country, furnishing cloth of all kinds at an expense ten times less than would be incurred now by the old system. The loom was not less necessary than the wheel, though they were not needed in so great numbers. Not every house had a loom, one loom having a capacity for the needs of several families. Settlers, having succeeded in spite of the wolves in raising sheep, commenced the manufacture of woolen cloth. Wool was carded and made into rolls by hand cards and the rolls were spun on the "big wheel." We still occasionally find in the house of old settlers a wheel of this kind, sometimes used for spinning and twisting stocking yarn. They are turned with the hand and with such velocity that it will run itself while the nimble worker, by her backward step, draws out and twists her thread nearly the whole length of the cabin. A common article woven on the loom was linsey, or linsey woolsey, the chain being linen and the filling woolen. The cloth. was used for dresses for the women and girls. Nearly all the clothes worn by the men were also home made. Rarely was a farmer or his son seen in a coat made of any other. If occasionally a young man appeared in a suit of "boughten" clothes, he was suspected of having gotten it for a particular occasion, which occurs in the life of nearly every young man. HOSPITALITY. The traveler always found a welcome at the pioneer's cabin. It was never full. Although there might already be a guest for every puncheon, there was still "room for one more," and a wider circle would be made for the newcomer at the big fire. If the stranger was in search of land he was doubly welcome and his host would volunteer to show him all the "first-rate claims in this neck of the woods," going with him for days, showing the corners and advantages of every "congress tract" within a dozen miles of his own cabin. To his neighbors the pioneer was equally liberal. If a deer was killed, the choicest bits were sent to the nearest neighbor, a half dozen miles away perhaps. When a "shoat" was butchered, the same custom prevailed. If a newcomer came in too late for "cropping," the neighbors would supply his table with just the same luxuries they themselves enjoyed, and in as liberal quantity until a crop could be raised. When a newcomer had located his claim, the neighbors for miles around would assemble at the site of the newcomer's proposed cabin and aid him in "gettin' " it up. One party with axes would cut down the trees and hew the logs, another with teams would haul the logs to the ground, another party would "raise" the cabin, while several of the old men would "rive the clapboards" for the roof. By night the little forest domicile would be up and ready for a "house warming," which was the dedicatory occupation of the house, when music and dancing and festivity would be enjoyed at full height. next day the newcomer would be as well situated as his neighbors. ment. The An instance of primitive hospitable manners will be in place here. A traveling Methodist preacher arrived in a distant neighborhood to fill an appointThe house where services were to be held did not belong to a church member, but no matter for that. Boards were collected from all quarters with which to make temporary seats, one of the neighbors volunteering to lead off in the work, while the man of the house, with the faithful rifle on his shoulder, sallied forth in quest of meat, for this truly was a "ground-hog" case, the preacher coming and no meat in the house. The host ceased not the chase until he found the meat in the shape of a deer. Returning, he sent a boy out after it, with directions on what "pint" to find it. After services, which had been listened to with rapt attention by all the audience, mine host said to his wife, "Old woman, I reckon this 'ere preacher is pretty hungry and you must git him a bite to eat." "What shaill I get him?" asked the wife who had not seen the deer; "thar's nuthin' in the house to eat." "Why look thar," returned he, “thar's a deer, and thar's plenty of corn in the field; you git some corn and grate it, while I skin the deer, and we'll have a good supper for him." It is needless to add that venison and corn bread made a supper fit for any pioneer preacher and was thankfully eaten. PRAIRIE FIRES. Fires set out by Indians or settlers, sometimes purposely and sometimes permitted through carelessness, would visit the prairies every autumn and sometimes the forests, either in autumn or spring, and settlers could not always succeed in defending themselves against the destroying element. Many interesting incidents are related. Often a fire was started to bewilder game, or to bare a piece of ground for the early grazing of stock the ensuing spring, and it would get away under a wind and soon be beyond control. Violent winds would often arise and drive the flames with such rapidity that riders on the fleetest steeds could scarcely escape. On the approach of a prairie fire the farmer would immediately set about "cutting off supplies" for the devouring enemy by a “back fire." Thus by starting a small fire near the bare ground about his premises and keeping it under control next his property, he would burn off a strip around him and prevent the attack of the on-coming flames. A few furrows or a ditch around the farm were in some degree a protection. An original prairie of tall and exuberant grass on fire, especially at night, was a magnificent spectacle, enjoyed only by the pioneer. Here is an instance where the frontiersman, proverbially deprived of the sights and pleasures of an old community, is privileged far beyond the people of the present day in this country. One could scarcely tire beholding the scene, as its awe inspiring features seemed constantly to increase, and the whole panorama unceasingly changed like the dissolving views of a magic lantern, or like the aurora borealis. Language cannot convey, words cannot express the faintest idea of the splendor and grandeur of such a conflagration at night. It was as if the pale queen of night, disdaining to take her accustomed place in the heavens, had dispatched myriads |