EARLY MANHOOD IN THE MIDDLE WEST 113 



boys substituted a corn cob for the wooden pin 

 and then when there was a quick push on the door 

 the cob would break and the door come open. A 

 fresh cob served to secure the door again and to 

 push the broken one out. 



The first evening I wondered where we were all 

 to find lodgment for there were in the family a 

 father and mother, two grown daughters, a big 

 boy, a man boarder and four younger lads, besides 

 Moyer and myself. It reminded me of the land- 

 lord's puzzle which was current in my boyhood: 

 the problem was to put seven men in six beds, 

 having only one in a bed and yet all in bed at the 

 same time. The solution of our problem was how- 

 ever, much more pressing it was how to put 

 twelve persons comfortably to sleep in four visible 

 beds. It was not until later that I discovered how 

 it was attempted. The parents and one of the 

 smaller children slept in the kitchen bed, the two 

 grown girls in an invisible one under it. The big 

 son and the boarder slept in the second bed; three 

 of the kids in the third; and we two carpenters in 

 the fourth all three of these being in the Lean-to 

 which was only about ten feet wide and sixteen 

 feet long. There was a small piece of glass left 

 in the sash to mark where a window had been and 



