spigot in the barrel. He tried to
look up and tell her, but lost his balance and fell over backward while
the liquor ran over the floor. Then he laughed and laughed and told her
where they were.

We built a cabin a few miles out of town. Our nearest neighbors were the
DeNoyers who kept a halfway house in a three roomed log cabin. Their bar
was in the kitchen. Besides this, there was a scantily furnished sitting
room and bed room. Mrs. DeNoyer was a warm hearted Irish woman when she
had not been drinking, but her warm heart never had much chance to show.
They bought their liquors at Jackson's.

Our house was made from logs hewed flat with a broadax. My father was a
wonder at hewing. The ax was eight inches wide and had a crooked hickory
handle. Some men marked where they were to hew but father had such a
good eye that he could hew straight without a mark. The cracks were
filled with blue clay. For windows, we had "chinkins" of wood. Our bark
roof was made by laying one piece of bark over another, kind of like
shingles. Our floor was of puncheons. This was much better than the bark
floors, many people had.

I used to take much pleasure in watching and hearing the Red River carts
come squawking along. They were piled high with furs. The French half
breed drivers would slouch along by them. It seemed as if the small
rough coated oxen just wandered along the trail. Sometimes a cow would
be used. I once saw one of these cows with a buffalo calf. It seemed to
be hers. Was this the first Cataloo?

When I was nine years old my father sent me to the spring for a pail of
water. I was returning with it, hurrying along as father had just called
to me to come quick, when I was surrounded by a band of Sioux warriors
on their way to Shakopee to a scalp dance. They demanded the water but I
would not let them have it and kept snatching it away. It tickled them
very much to see that I was not afraid. They called to the chief, Little
Crow, and he too ordered me to give it to them, but I said, "No, my
father wants this, you can't have it." At this the chief laughed and
said, "Tonka Squaw" meaning brave woman and they left. They had on
everything fancy that an Indian could--paint and warbonnets and
feathers. They always wore every fancy thing they had to a dance, but in
actual war, they were unpainted and almost naked.

The first soldiers I saw in 1843 were from Fort Snelling. They had blue
uniforms with lots of brass buttons and a larg