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We had make our landing and transfer from the shanty to
the new log house about the first week in December. It was certain now that the cheer of Christmas was to be
vouchsafed to us... Now, a great question confronted us!
Out of what material was the Christmas feast to be
prepared. The country was full of game, almost every species, but our
hunters were not skilled. The
deer fled and the prairie chickens were distant and not inclined
to close companionship; the ducks and wild geese had gone
southward; wild turkeys were rare, although a few were domiciled
in this section. Our
larder was lean and almost desolate. There was pork in one barrel, a little flour in another, and
a small bag of Indian (corn) meal.
So the pork and flour fulfilled the purposes and my mother
having smuggled a few dried apples in the removal, an apple pie
was the consequence, and O, how good it was!
No stockings hung by the fireplace, no presents were given
and none expected. The gifts that passed were those from the heart to heart, and
uppermost in the thoughts of all was the wish that there would
dawn upon us a day of great splendor, when the territory as a state
would be filled with teeming millions of people of the highest
civilization... |
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