After He
Had Gone, I Boldly Confessed My Impecunious Circumstances, And
Told Them That I Must Stay There Till Things Changed, That I
Hoped Not To Inconvenience Them In Any Way, And That By Dividing
The Work Among Us They Would Be Free To Be Out Hunting.
So we
agreed to make the best of it.
(Our arrangements, which we
supposed would last only two or three days, extended over nearly
a month. Nothing could exceed the courtesy and good feeling
which these young men showed. It was a very pleasant time on the
whole and when we separated they told me that though they were
much "taken aback" at first, they felt at last that we could get
on in the same way for a year, in which I cordially agreed.)
Sundry practical difficulties had to be faced and overcome.
There was one of the common spring mattresses of the country in
the little room which opened from the living room, but nothing
upon it. This was remedied by making a large bag and filling it
with hay. Then there were neither sheets, towels, nor
table-clothes. This was irremediable, and I never missed the
first or last. Candles were another loss, and we had only one
paraffin lamp. I slept all night in spite of a gale which blew
all Sunday and into Monday afternoon, threatening to lift the
cabin from the ground, and actually removing part of the roof
from the little room between the kitchen and living room, in
which we used to dine. Sunday was brilliant, but nearly a
hurricane, and I dared not stir outside the cabin. The parlor
was two inches deep in the mud from the roof. We nominally
divide the cooking. Mr. Kavan makes the best bread I ever ate;
they bring in wood and water, and wash the supper things, and I
"do" my room and the parlor, wash the breakfast things, and
number of etceteras. My room is easily "done," but the parlor
is a never-ending business. I have swept shovelfuls of mud out
of it three times to-day. There is nothing to dust it with but a
buffalo's tail, and every now and then a gust descends the open
chimney and drives the wood ashes all over the room. However, I
have found an old shawl which answers for a table-cloth, and have
made our "parlor" look a little more habitable. Jim came in
yesterday in a silent mood, and sat looking vacantly into the
fire. The young men said that this mood was the usual precursor
of an "ugly fit."
Food is a great difficulty. Of thirty milch cows only one is
left, and she does not give milk enough for us to drink. The
only meat is some pickled pork, very salt and hard, which I
cannot eat, and the hens lay less than one egg a day. Yesterday
morning I made some rolls, and made the last bread into a
bread-and-butter pudding, which we all enjoyed.
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