esides radishes and beets?" asked
Ollie.

"Oh, other things would grow all right, but radishes and
beets seem to be the natural things for sod-house growing. You
can take hold of the lower end and pull 'em from the inside, you
know, Ollie."

"I don't believe it, Uncle Jack," said Ollie, stoutly. "Ask
the rancher," answered Jack. "If you're ever at dinner in a sod
house, and want another radish, just reach up and pull one down
through the roof, tops and all. Then you're sure they're fresh.
I'd like to keep a summer hotel in a sod house. I'd advertise
'fresh vegetables pulled at the table.'"

"I'm going to ask the man about sod houses," returned Ollie.
He went up to where the owner of the house was sitting outside,
and said:

"Will you please tell me how you make a sod house?"

"Yes," said the man, smiling. "Thinking of making one?"

"Well, not just now," replied Ollie. "But. I'd like to know
about them. I might want to build one--sometime," he added,
doubtfully.

"Well," said the man, "it's this way: First we plough up a
lot of the tough prairie sod with a large plough called a
breaking-plough, intended especially for ploughing the prairie
the first time. This turns it over in a long, even, unbroken
strip, some fourteen or sixteen inches wide and three or four
inches thick. We cut this up into pieces two or three feet long,
take them to the place where we are building the house, on a
stone-boat or a sled, and use them in laying up the walls in just
about the same way that bricks are used in making a brick house.
Openings are left for the doors and windows, and either a shingle
or sod roof put on. If it's sod, rough boards are first laid on
poles, and then sods put on them like shingles. I've got a sod
roof on mine, you see."

Ollie was looking at the grass and weeds growing on the top
and sides of the house. They must have made a pretty sight when
they were green and thrifty earlier in the season, but they were
dry and withered now.

"Do you ever have prairie-fires on your roofs?" asked Ollie,
with a smile.

"Oh, they do burn off sometimes," answered the man. "Catch
from the chimney, you know. Did you ever see a hay fire?"

"No."

"Come inside and I'll show you one."

In the house, which consisted of one large room divided
across one end by a curtain, Ollie noticed a few chairs and a
table, and opposite the door a stove which looked very much like
an ordinary cook-stove, except tha