98 RIVERBY 



had been fortunate enough to find a farm with a 

 frame house upon it (the houses were mostly log 

 ones) built by an Englishman whose homesickness 

 had driven him back to England. It stood upon a 

 slight elevation in the midst of a prairie, though not 

 a very level one. To the east and to the west of 

 us, about four miles away, were the woods along the 

 banks of the streams. It was in the month of June 

 when we came, and the prairie was tinted pink with 

 wild roses. From early spring till late in the fall 

 the ground used to be so covered with some kinds of 

 flowers that it had almost as decided a color as the 

 sky itself, and the air would be fragrant with their 

 perfume. First it is white with ' dog-toes ' [prob- 

 ably an orchid], then a cold blue from being covered 

 with some kind of light- blue flower; next come the 

 roses ; in July and August it is pink with the ' prai- 

 rie pink, ' dotted with scarlet lilies ; as autumn comes 

 on, it is vivid with orange-colored flowers. I never 

 knew their names; they have woody stalks; one 

 kind that grows about a foot high has a feathery 

 spray of little blossoms [goldenrod ?]. There are 

 several kinds of tall ones; the blossom has yellow 

 leaves and brown velvety centres [cone-flower, or 

 rudbeckia, probably, now common in the East]. 

 We youngsters used to gather the gum that exuded 

 from the stalk. Every one was poor in those days, 

 and no one was ashamed of it. Plenty to eat, such 

 as it was. We introduced some innovations in that 

 line that shocked the people here. We used corn 

 meal; they said it was only fit for hogs. Worse 



