within your means, which you can often do, as all new 

 countries are first improved by an uneasy, roving class, 

 ever ready to " sell out " and go to some other part of the 

 country, " a little farther west," or perhaps " begin a new 

 place " in the same neighborhood, and which in turn will 

 be aguin for sale. In fact, this is the common way of 

 settling a new country. So you need not be surprised to 

 find the whole population ready to sell their new home 

 before a long residence attaches them to it. The " sell- 

 ing out fever " is a mania, but a very harmless one; you 

 need not fear it. But if you cannot buy an old place, 

 then you must make a new one. " What !" you exclaim, 

 " buy land, build a house, fence and plough a farm, with 

 $200 ? Pray, tell me how." We will. 



First, then, you cannot buy less than forty acres of 

 public land. Let this be dry, clean prairie, which will 

 be perhaps from one to three miles from timber. This 

 will cost $50, besides a little expense of going to the land- 

 office, which in some districts may be a hundred miles. 

 Now, you must have some timber land. The price of 

 this will vary in different sections of the country, it being 

 in the hands of private individuals generally ; but where 

 timber is plenty enough to make it advisable to settle, it 

 can be bought for $5 an acre. Five acres of good white 

 oak timber, will be sufficient for the forty acres of prairie, 

 and will take up $25 more of the capital. 



Now for a house. Forty logs, eighteen feet long, ten 

 inches diameter, slightly hewed on two sides, notched or 

 hewed together at the corners, will form the walls. 

 Seven smaller sticks, hewed on one side, will make the 

 sleepers of the floor, and the same number for the joists 

 of the chamber floor ; as ten logs hi^h will allow of having 

 a low chamber that will answer for beds. -The rafters 

 can be made of straight rails, and may be boarded and 



