DUNFORD'S FARM TO MARQUETTE 309 



the Southern States; but this was the first occasion on 

 which I had noticed its adoption in this district. 



While I was engaged about the horse, the boss 

 (landlord, as we should call him) came up with an axe 

 in his hand and a huge pile of wood on his back. 

 " Wai ! " he exclaimed, " I guess you are making your- 

 self at home." I reminded him of the old proverb that 

 tells us that our friends will love us the better for help- 

 ing ourselves, and asked if I could sleep there, and have 

 a meal. A bed, I saw at a glance, it would be preposterous 

 to ask for in such a place, and I was doubtful about the 

 meal. The man was good-humoured enough, which 

 Yankees almost invariably are, in spite of a plain 

 spokenness which seems rather offensive to a new- 

 comer, and said I could have a bench and blanket 

 before the fire, and that he had the never-failing cold 

 pork and pumpkin-pie. He had also plenty of stuff he 

 called ale, which much resembled the waters of the 

 Missouri that is, yellow mud and cider and whisky, the 

 latter the most horrible stuff ever concocted. How its 

 consumers survived its consumption is a mystery. 



The hut consisted of two compartments, a partition of 

 thin boards having been erected, cutting off a third from 

 the general apartment, where the chance customers sat, 

 drank, spat, and swore to their hearts' content. For- 

 tunately for my comfort there was but one customer 

 here at present, and he it was I had heard snoring, for 

 he was asleep on three chairs in front of the Dutch-stove, 

 his body being on one, and his two long legs spread wide 

 apart on others. 



Surely I had previously seen those green small-clothes 

 patched with brown, and that dirty red shirt, mended 

 with still dirtier grey flannel. It actually was Major 

 Shadley, sponge and tender-foot, tramp and rogue, all, 

 or each by turns. He had evidently been sampling the 

 poisonous " Scotch " (a placard hung on the wall de- 

 scribed it as " Best Scotch whisky, direct from the 



