oats
healed rapidly in the kindly strengthening atmosphere, and hearts that
had been sore at parting with dear friends and a beloved home, were
filled with gratitude to Him who had led us to so fair and lovely a
resting place, and we mark that time with a white stone in memory of
His loving kindness in thus preparing us for what was to come.

Early in December, winter came upon us in earnest; snow fell to such a
depth that we were fairly shut out from the whole world, and so
suddenly as to find us unprepared. It was difficult and almost
impossible, on account of the deep snow, to procure wood sufficient
to keep up the constant fires necessary on account of the intense
cold. We had no mail, no telegraph, no news from our supplies. Yet we
hoped and made the best of our situation. Our children, who had read
"Robinson Crusoe" and "Swiss Family Robinson," thoroughly enjoyed this
entirely new experience, and, every day explored the various empty
houses, returning from their expeditions with different household
articles left by the former occupants as worthless, but which served
us a purpose in furnishing our table and kitchen. But day by day our
temporary supplies lessened, and with all the faith we could call to
our aid, we could not but feel somewhat anxious. A crop of wheat
raised on the place the preceding summer had been stored, unthreshed,
in some of the empty buildings, and this, at last, came to be our only
dependence. The mill on the property had, of course, been frozen up,
and only after hours of hard work, could my husband and boys so far
clear it of ice, as to succeed in making flour, and such flour! I have
always regretted that we did not preserve a specimen for exhibition
and chemical analysis, for verily the like was never seen before, and
I defy any one of our great Minneapolis mills to produce an imitation
of it. The wheat was very smutty, and having no machinery to remedy
this evil, all efforts to cleanse it proved unsatisfactory, but the
compound prepared from it which we called _bread_, was so rarely
obtainable, as to be looked upon as a luxury. Our daily "staff of
life" was unground wheat.

A large number of Chippewa Indians were encamped about us most of the
time, and not being able to hunt successfully, on account of the very
deep snow, were driven to great extremity, and sometimes, acting on
the well established principle, that "self-preservation is the first
law of nature," broke in the windows of o