hus: Jim
sat before a fine fire washing his feet. Soothed by the warmth of the
room and the water, he fell asleep to awaken suddenly toward morning
with his feet nearly to his knees embedded in a solid cake of ice! We
laughed at our hardships, for there was no escaping them, and we learned
to turn them, as well as everything else we possessed, to some useful
purpose.

Robes, buffalo coats, all available garments, were used during those
first winters for bed-clothing. There was one flock of chickens in
Otranto, but not until much later were flocks of ducks and geese raised
so that feather pillows and beds could be used. Floor covering at first
was uncommon, but finally rag carpets added to the comfort of the home
during the winter.

Had food been abundant, or even sufficient, we would have felt less
anxious, but with the winter hanging on far into the spring months, we
had good reason to watch our stores carefully. Buckwheat ground in a
coffee mill kept one family for two months in the winter of '57. Another
neighbor's family subsisted upon musty corn meal, ground by revolving a
cannon ball in the scooped out trunk of a tree. So long drawn out was
the winter, that the amount of meal for each member of the family was
carefully measured out each day. One family living near the river could
get plenty of fish through the ice, but having no fat in which to fry
them, were obliged to use them boiled. When their salt was exhausted,
they ate the fish unflavored.

I possessed a good team of horses and made trips to Decorah for
supplies. I went only when it was really necessary, for the journey was
beset with many dangers and discomforts. Flour and salt pork were the
foods purchased, which I sold to the other settlers in small quantities.
Prairie chickens were abundant, and some of the pioneers tried drying
the breasts and found that one way to provide meat for the winter.

In the winter of '56, there was a thick coating of ice over the snow,
sufficiently strong to hold a man's weight, but the deers' legs cut
through the crust. My neighbors told of how easily they were able to get
plenty of venison without venturing far from home. Never did a settler
dare to go far away to hunt during those first winters, for the dangers
of being lost and frozen were very great. I have often heard the wish
expressed that fresh meat could be had every winter, with as few risks
as in that year before I moved to Otranto.

We all felt the lack of