y covered less than eight miles, and that night we
stopped at a farm-house which was the last bit of civilization we saw.
Early the next morning we were off again, making the slow progress due
to the rough roads and our heavy load. At night we stopped at a place
called Thomas's Inn, only to be told by the woman who kept it that
there was nothing in the house to eat. Her husband, she said, had gone
"outside" (to Grand Rapids) to get some flour, and had not returned--but
she added that we could spend the night, if we chose, and enjoy shelter,
if not food. We had provisions in our wagon, so we wearily entered,
after my brother had got out some of our pork and opened a barrel of
flour. With this help the woman made some biscuits, which were so green
that my poor mother could not eat them. She had admitted to us that
the one thing she had in the house was saleratus, and she had used this
ingredient with an unsparing hand. When the meal was eaten she broke the
further news that there were no beds.

"The old woman can sleep with me," she suggested, "and the girls can
sleep on the floor. The boys will have to go to the barn." She and her
bed were not especially attractive, and mother decided to lie on the
floor with us. We had taken our bedding from the wagon, and we slept
very well; but though she was usually superior to small annoyances, I
think my mother resented being called an "old woman." She must have felt
like one that night, but she was only about forty-eight years of age.

At dawn the next morning we resumed our journey, and every day after
that we were able to cover the distance demanded by the schedule
arranged before we started. This meant that some sort of shelter usually
awaited us at night. But one day we knew there would be no houses
between the place we left in the morning and that where we were to
sleep. The distance was about twenty miles, and when twilight fell we
had not made it. In the back of the wagon my mother had a box of little
pigs, and during the afternoon these had broken loose and escaped
into the woods. We had lost much time in finding them, and we were so
exhausted that when we came to a hut made of twigs and boughs we decided
to camp in it for the night, though we knew nothing about it. My brother
had unharnessed the horses, and my mother and sister were cooking
dough-god--a mixture of flour, water, and soda, fried in a pan-when two
men rode up on horseback and called my brother to one side. I