USA > Kansas > Emigrant life in Kansas > Part 4
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and after settling his hash we left the cat in peace.
Now and then we came across the " blue- racer " snake, but never managed to kill one, for, as its name implies, it is a quick traveller ; in fact, it is no sooner seen than gone, like a flash of greased lightning with the brake off.
Another mystery to us was the glass snake, so called from its brittleness ; for with a slight blow it would break in two. Moreover, it is supposed to possess the marvellous property of being able to join itself together again after an accident, but I am inclined to think this a popular delusion. I have never proved it by experience, although after having apparently killed one -- broken it into several pieces and leaving it-it had singularly disappeared, as though the head had come back to gather up the remainder (for the head and front part generally managed to escape). This matter I must leave for settlement to others better versed in this branch of zoology than myself. Another kind of snake, and one that we were not at all fond of, was the mocassin, a poisonous snake very similar in size and colour to the rattlesnake, but generally to be found
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in the water. For this reason it behoved us to be careful in going in to swim, or we might find our bath occupied.
There was another kind of water snake, a little harmless thing, that we paid no attention to, often ·being in the water at the same time.
All kinds are now beginning to get quite scarce, as nobody passes one if he can possibly kill it. Sometimes we had hard tussels, and sometimes they were found in such positions as to fall an easy prey to our tender mercies.
One day Humphrey found a big bull snake down a hole which had been dug for a fence post. All he had to do then was to ram away at the " critter " with the post. It was like using a big pestle and mortar.
Occasionally we would be guided to a snake by the cries of a frog, and would find the poor thing halfway down the snake's throat, with his legs crushed out of all shape. The snake then became our victim by way of a change.
. Once we found a big snake that had just swallowed a smaller one; it was lying almost helpless, with the other's tail protruding from its mouth. We then killed two with one stone.
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Small game was very plentiful, such as prairie chickens, quails, snipes, wild ducks, . rabbits, and jack-rabbits. . The latter were large creatures, closely resembling the English hare, but more of a fawn colour. Like the hare, they do not burrow in the earth, but lie close in the grass; sometimes so still would they sit, in the hope of not being seen, that we have been able to throw ourselves on them and catch them.
Occasionally, if on the high flat prairie, we used to run them down on horseback; but it was a hard run, as they were very swift, and went in long bounds like a kangaroo.
The snipes used to amuse us a good deal by the trouble they took to lead us from their nests when disturbed. If we rode .close by a snipe on her nest in the grass, she would spring out and flutter away, as though her wing was broken, at the same time piping most mournfully, as though in great pain. If we followed she continued the game until we got about fifty yards from the nest, when she would fly away safe and sound, uttering a noise which one could almost fancy was a laugh at our being duped.
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Of course to any one in the secret it was vain work on her part, as, directly a bird flew up in such a commotion, one knew that the nest was close by.
With the commencement of autumn there
PRAIRIE CHICKEN.
were hundreds of wild geese, cranes, brant, swans, etc., flying south to their winter quarters among the lagoons of the Mississippi and other regions, only stopping at night to feed, so that we seldom got a shot at them, as they flew so high.
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In the spring they flew north again, on their way to the great lakes. They looked very pretty in their great V-shaped flocks, and made a great noise as they flew.
In the winter we used to catch a great many prairie fowls in traps.
We would put a big box on top of a figure 4 piece, and throw some Indian corn under for bait, and would sometimes catch as many as three or four of these large birds at one time.
One year we had a small patch of land sown with buckwheat, but as it was not very good, it was never carried, and the prairie fowls used to come there in swarms when the snow was on the ground. As we had four traps, we nearly lived on prairie fowls that winter.
They seemed very simple in that respect, although wary enough as regards shooting them, for when feeding thus in a field there was usually a sentinel perched upon the fence.
Quails are very easily caught in traps also, and as they always keep close together in a covey, we sometimes caught nine or ten at once. I remember Humphrey killing eighteen at one shot with a gun when in the woods.
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A figure 4 trap is made in this way. A stout stick, sharpened like a chisel at the top end, is placed upright on the ground with a notched stick resting upon it in a sloping position. This second stick is also sharpened chisel-wise at one end, and it catches in a
FIGURE 4 TRAP.
notch in a third and longer stick. This one has another notch cut in its side, which catches on the first stick. The trap-box or tub, or whatever it may be-rests on the top of No. 2 stick, and binds all together. The bait is placed on or near the end of the long stick,
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and a very slight touch is sufficient to drop the trap. This arrangement is said to have been invented by Daniel Boone, the old Kentucky settler, when his ammunition was all used up. He used to apply the principle to tremendous heavy logs to fall on and kill bears and deer.
There are several kinds of wild plants growing on the prairie which are edible, or at least useful medicinally. Wild onions, or shallots, were very plentiful. They grew en- cased in woody, fibrous coverings, which, when . stripped off, disclosed a little kind of spring onion which was very nice.
Artichokes, too, were abundant, and another plant tasting exactly like celery. Then there was the wild tea-plant, a small bushy shrub with white flowers and crisp, bright green leaves, which, when picked and dried in the sun, made very good tea. Tea can also be made of the leaves of the raspberry canes, quite as good to my taste as the ordinary Chinese beverage.
Then there was also a herb which we used as medicine for any little disorder inside. Besides these there was a peculiar plant known as rosin weed, from which exuded a
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gum which the girls and boys used to gather for chewing. Chewing gum is much sold in the towns, but it is of a different material to this. Another plant was known as " snake- weed." One was popularly supposed to find a snake under it, but this rule did not always hold good, though we certainly found snakes near the weeds sometimes.
It was rather a peculiar weed, something like a broad bean, with flowers of the lupin kind. Sensitive plants also abounded on the rocky upland, the leaves of which all closed up upon being touched.
They had beautiful pink flowers with a most lovely scent.
CHAPTER V.
FARMING AND HERDING.
Our crops .- Pig killing .- First Christmas on the prairie .- Losing cattle .- Visited by Indians .- Cold weather .- Moving our house. - Building stone. - Our mule and pony .- Soap-making .- Indian corn .- Our family party gets smaller .- The blue bird .- The Prices .- Our herd .- Sleeping out of doors .- Cooking frogs .- Bad water .- Breaking up .- The prairie fire.
ALTHOUGH the first year crops are never expected to be so good as those grown on older land, owing to the sods being so full of roots that it takes some time to decay, we still got in a very fair quantity of seed, more particularly of small grain-wheat, oats, and rye. Indian corn does not grow so well as these on sod land.
We had a big patch of sorghum, and that grew first-rate. The " garden truck," too, was very prolific, as of course on a small patch of land we were better able to pulverise the soil than on a whole field. Some pumpkins grew
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to a tremendous size, one measuring about two feet by eighteen inches, and turning the scale at sixty-eight pounds. Melons, squashes, cucumbers, tomatoes, and hosts of other things grew without any attention, and in such quan- tities that we used them to feed the pigs upon.
The pigs were easily maintained through the summer; for even if corn was scarce the produce of the garden and field was soon available for them, and in addition to this there were several kinds of weeds which grew close to hand, which formed very good food for them. .
There were great bushy plants called " pig- weeds," which grew five or six feet high, which it was impossible for any one to pull up. We used, therefore, to cut them down with hatchets, and as they sprouted again and grew with great rapidity, we had a practically inex- haustible supply. These weeds form the usual summer food for pigs all about the country.
There was another kind very similar, called " Lamb's quarter," from the shape of its leaf, which in the spring, when young, was cooked and eaten like spinach.
In the winter we had a lively time pig-
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killing. Humphrey always stuck the pigs, but we all helped at the scalding and scraping off of the bristles. Big hogs we always shot first to save the trouble of holding. On one occasion Parker wished to try his hand at sticking pigs, but after one was caught and got in position, he backed out, saying that he did not like to.
We used to keep a pig in the house during the winter to cut from-a dead one. It used to hang in one corner of the room over the flour barrel, and was frozen as hard as a board. We used just to take a hatchet and cut off as much as we wanted to fry.
Time ran on, and Christmas soon came round, the first we had spent on the prairie, though not in the States-that one we had spent at Junction City.
We had a very quiet time, but managed to get up a very good spread, with a regular Christmas pudding. For the latter a special journey had been made to town for the various ingredients, all of which we obtained without much trouble, with the exception of suet. As our staple food was pork, and there were no butchers in town, we were rather in a fix, and
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thought our pudding would suffer, until at last we got hold of some buffalo suet from a hunter returning from the west. Despite a few minor accidents our pudding was a great. success, and we had quite a banquet with roast suck- ing-pig, wild ducks, and prairie fowls.
This winter was much more severe than the one we had spent in Junction City, and the cattle suffered exceedingly. Of course w had no experience, and did not know what provision to make for the winter either with regard to shelter or food. To begin with, our corral was on the side of a hill facing the north, instead of the south, as it ought to have . done, and we built no sheds, except for the horses. Then, although we had got in a good lot of hay, the cattle were just allowed to help themselves, and the consequence was that they burrowed great holes in the sides of the stack, and wasted it to a fearful extent.
We had some exceedingly cold weather and a late spring, and lost nearly half of the cattle we started with.
One day we had two Indians come in to beg, and our frozen pig took their fancy very much. We gave them quite a large piece, but it did
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not seem to meet their views exactly, as one began to chop with his hand at the place he would like it cut, and to tell us in pantomimic language how many "papooses " (children) he had at home in his wigwam. One was very anxious to know if the old plated forks which we had brought from England were "siller." . They took their departure after a while with their pork and some flour, and after having a good feed.
They seemed to have spread a good report of our hospitality among their brethren, for we were visited by a good many for some time, but we told them that we had nothing for them, . and then they ceased to come.
The Indians which were about here were a very mongrel lot ; they had very few of the supposed attributes of the " noble red man " of Fenimore Cooper.
They went about hunting and fishing, and trying to beg, borrow, or steal all they could, doing anything so as to live without working. If there were any deer in the neighbourhood, they were sure to get them, as they would follow them for days.
I spoke of frozen pork in the house just now.
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The winter there is about cold enough to " freeze the hair off an Arctic dog," as the saying goes. It was a matter of no small difficulty to write a letter to the old country in the winter, as the ink was frozen a solid lump, and had to be kept on the stove while in use.
While sitting round the red-hot stove at breakfast, one's coffee would freeze in a very short time if placed on the table a few feet from the fire.
If by chance we left our tin pail full of water when we went to bed, we could hear it popping · away during the night like a pistol, as it expanded with the frost, and in the morning the water would have changed into a solid block of ice.
Hot water thrown into the air out of doors would come down as hail. During weather like this we had to be mighty careful how we handled iron or steel, for the frost in an axe or hammer would cause it to cling to a damp hand.
Once Humphrey was driving in some nails in the stable, and thoughtlessly put some in his mouth. He was obliged to go to the house and get some hot water before he could
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remove them. If he had attempted to pull them out the skin and flesh would have come too.
What a treat it was to sit down and milk a cow in such weather! It was as much as the milk was worth. We never kept more than one in milk through the winter, and not always that, so that butter was rather scarce, unless we had enough salted down.
It was quite a matter of discussion, too, as to who should get up and light the fire, as no one liked to turn out first on a cold morning. There was a sort of general watching and wait- ing all round to see if some one else would not make a start. Our blankets were a sight in the morning. A person's form would be out- lined in hoar frost, and around the head the clothes were frequently frozen quite hard, where the breath had come through ; for it was almost impossible to keep one's head from under the cover.
Our house being only of boards, it was not very warm, for the wind would come whistling through like a knife; but we managed to im- prove it after a while, putting dry earth in between the two boards-the outer feather- edge and the inside match-boards-for a few
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feet up all round, and by degrees we papered nearly all the walls with pictures from the English illustrated papers, which were sent to us by friends at home in the old country.
Cooking was about the nicest occupation in winter, especially as most of our food was fried ; we lived principally on fried pork and flap-jacks,-the latter a kind of pancake,- varied occasionally with Johnny cake and fried mush, both made from Indian corn meal.
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Wood-chopping was about the best out-of- door work to get on to, as one could manage to keep warm at that. I do not know quite what the thermometer stood at during the coldest weather, as ours got broken, but I saw it once in town showing thirty degrees below zero, or sixty-two degrees of frost,-Fahren- heit,-but I have no doubt that it was colder than that sometimes up on the open prairie where we lived. I have often known a pond to freeze over sufficiently in one night to bear any number of persons or cattle on it. But our springs never froze over; the water came out of the warm earth, and would run for a . few yards down the stream before freezing. They sometimes, in a storm, were completely
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hidden by drifts, when it was a fine treat to have to find them, going probing about with a pole, and sometimes finding ourselves going through the crust of snow up to our boot-tops in the water which we were trying to find. We were bound to keep them open both for ourselves and the cattle. After one heavy fall that we had, we boys had some fine fun in the drifts. There was a slight thaw, and then the hard frost again, so that the snow was pretty well bound together, and we carved in a big drift a regular cave or house with several · partitions, and a roof over all-which lasted nearly all winter.
· When once the winter begins in earnest there are very few changes for four or five months. The poor cattle and other stock suffer a great deal from the cold. Cows are often seen with their ears and tails frozen off, and dogs and cats the same, while the combs and feet of poultry get rather badly used up, too. The pigs seem to be able to take care of themselves pretty well.
Our house was built on the side of a hill facing the north, and as just across the ravine there was another hill, the view was rather
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contracted, although we could look down the ravine a good distance to the head of Davis' Creek. After a while, therefore, we began to get tired of the position, and so moved the house to the top of the hill at the back of us.
We got Will Hopkins and his six yoke of oxen and another neighbour to come and help us. We smoothed the hill a little, pulling up the stones which cropped out, and cut down . the little sumac bushes, and then, having pre- pared several small wooden rollers, we hitched a.log-chain around the edifice and started the bullocks. Of course the progress was rather slow, as the rollers had to be kept carried to the front, but still we sailed along in safety, Parker remaining inside the whole time cooking the dinner. The new position was a decided im- provement as regards the view, but, if possible, · it was rather more bleak in the wintertime, perched up on top of the hill.
We commanded a most extensive view of the prairie, and before I left we could see about seven houses, although at the time of moving there were none in sight. The country is now settling up very fast.
We had splendid stone about our place,
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which was quarried without much difficulty, and was easily worked up. There was also plenty of flat surface rock, which was most useful for rough walls for stables or cowsheds, and from the sides of the ravines great blocks of limestone, mostly about three feet thick, cropped out. This could be split up into con- venient sizes, and faced up to any degree of smoothness for house-building.
Near at hand, by digging a little way, we came upon soap-stone, but it was in small flaky pieces, and of no use except for filling in rough walls. It was quite soft, almost like cheese, and could be cut with a knife, or bitten through with the teeth. There was a spot a
mile or so north of us though, where it was to be found in large blocks in the side of a hill, and this we utilised a bit. It was remarkably soft when first quarried, but when exposed to the air became almost as hard as flint. At one time we were going to make a chimney pot of it, as it was so easy to work, and had got it squared up and hollowed out a good bit, when for some reason it was laid by for a few weeks. Upon going to finish the job we found that it had got so hard that our tools
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FARMING AND HERDING.
would scarcely touch it, so we used it for a pig-trough, and cut out a new chimney pot while the stone was soft and fresh. We had to put a stone pot to the chimney, because our iron stove-pipe had set fire to the house once, and it had a narrow escape of being destroyed.
Amongst our various animals we had a queer couple-a mule that no one could ride, and a pony that no one could work. The mule was a splendid thing to pull, but there was only about one man in the country who could ride him. My father bought him to work in harness, and he worked first-rate; hitch him to anything, and he would pull his heart out, or something had to go. His former owner was a tremendous Swede, and he could manage to stick on his back somehow; I think his legs were about long enough to tie in a knot round the mule. I never knew any one else who' could sit it out.
He lent him to a neighbour once to ride to town. They started all right, but somehow, after going a very short distance, the man came back leading the mule, and " guessed he'd walk." After we had him Humphrey and Jack both tried to ride him, but although
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they could usually keep a pretty firm seat, they could not stick to that mule.
The pony was the exact reverse of this. He was an Indian pony, captured by the soldiers .
SADDLING UP.
during a skirmish, and had a great gap in his withers from a sabre cut. He was one of the nicest riding ponies I ever sat on; he could lope along all day with an easy motion about
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FARMING AND HERDING.
like a rocking-chair. He was very useful for driving cattle, as he would grab at them with his teeth to hurry them on, and a movement of the body was enough to turn him in any direc- tion, almost without using the bridle.
But put him in harness, and then stand back ! for there's going to be a smash-up. His eye glances out an evil fire, his nostrils dilate, his ears are thrown back, and in a second he bolts. He will not stop till he gets free from all incumbrances, or gets into such a position that he can go no more. One day we were going to hitch him to the waggon with the mule, but before they were fastened to it-simply harnessed and connected together with the pole-yoke-away he started. He dragged the mule along until he got excited too, and together they rushed into a wire fence. That stopped them, and if that was not a mix up I never saw one. They both went down amid the ruins of the fence, where they kicked, and struggled, and plunged until we thought we should never extricate them.
But at last we got them out, and found them not so much hurt as we expected, though the pony had a nasty cut in his leg, and the
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harness was pretty badly used. One had rolled over the other, so that when at last we got them on to their feet the pony was where the mule ought to be, and vice versa.
Another time we were going to give them a trial, and had hitched the pony to the waggon, and were bringing up the mule to him, when he started off, broke loose from Jack who was holding him, and rushed away down the hill with the waggon behind him. Of course the pole was almost on the ground, but not quite low enough to catch in anything, and so away he dashed, colliding with the pig-sty, and only just missing the house; and was at length brought to a standstill by rushing into the stream at the bottom of the ravine, where he stuck fast, the pole breaking off short in the mud. After that we only used him for riding.
Soap-making was one of our occasional jobs, and was by no means a nice one. The soap is made in the following manner. All . the wood ashes are saved from the stove (taking care, however, that there are no walnut- wood ashes amongst them, or they will spoil the lot), and put in a dry wooden hopper.
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FARMING AND HERDING.
When this gets full, and the soap-boiling day is near at hand, water is poured on the ashes and allowed to soak through gradually to the bottom, where the now dark-brown liquid is caught in a trough, and drained into a large pot or bucket. This is the lye or potash, and it is boiled down with all kinds of fat, bacon rinds, etc., which have also been saved up by degrees for this purpose. After several hours' boiling this combination forms a slippery, slimy mass-soft soap. It is usually kept in this condition ready for various uses -- washing, scrubbing, or scouring.
The addition of a little salt in the boiling transforms it into hard soap of a dirty-grey. colour.
During this, our second spring, the land being more suitable for it, we planted a great quantity of Indian corn. It is planted in " hills," three or four seeds in each, about four feet each way. 6 For marking the places where the corn is to be planted, after the land is ploughed and harrowed, a sort of sledge with four or five runners is drawn over the field, which marks grooves at the required distance apart. It is then driven across at
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right angles, and at the intersection of the grooves the corn is planted, either by hand and covered with a hoe, or else with a small machine. In a short time it is out of the ground, and, growing very rapidly, is soon ready for " cultivating." This consists of going over it twice at right angles with a horse-hoe or "cultivator," cutting up the weeds, and throwing the earth up to the roots.
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