JADED HORSES COOKING BREAKFAST. 221 



In our first day s journey we dined at La Porte, a small 

 rising place, situated in a rich prairie country, and on the mar 

 gin of Clear Lake, a beautiful and picturesque sheet of water, 

 said to be eight miles from Lake Michigan. We stopped for 

 the night at Clavering. The house w r as a mean log erection 

 of two apartments, one of which contained five beds, in which 

 nine travellers huddled together, and the other apartment, 

 from the number of the family, must have been equally well 

 filled. 



Our party collected at daybreak, when we set out on our 

 journey, the poor horses, not having got any thing but hay 

 oats, or Indian corn, were not to be had. The road, leading 

 through forests, was so heavy, that the poor animals could not 

 go beyond a slow walk, and I proceeded forward, in com 

 pany with the Nottawa Sepee farmer, with a view of ordering 

 breakfast for the party. 



On reaching a house, we w r ere told it would be some time 

 before breakfast could be prepared, as we had not been ex 

 pected. The inmates of the house consisted of a female and her 

 two young daughters, whom the farmer and I assisted in prepa 

 ring wood for cooking. A kettle and two frying-pans were 

 put on the fire, and two others over some ashes, removed from 

 the general mass by means of a shovel, and placed on the 

 hearth. Into one of these pans some small loaves were placed, 

 which had been prepared beforehand, and covered with a lid, 

 on which hot ashes were placed ; and in the other, batter- 

 cakes, called flap-cakes, were prepared. In one of the frying- 

 pans on the fire bacon was dressed, and in the other potatoes ; 

 so, in less than half-an-hour, a breakfast of the best the house 

 could afford was prepared. 



The horses again fared poorly, getting . a few ears of green 

 Indian corn, collected from the field, and we were told oats 

 would be obtained at the end of six or seven miles. We ac 

 cordingly found this to be the case, a small feed for each was 

 granted, and a supply to carry with us denied. 



After breakfasting, a French Canadian from the Lower 

 Province, engaged in trading with the Indians, joined us ; 

 and for five or six miles, before reaching Lake Michigan, the 

 road was through undulating oak openings of loose heavy 



