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. 

 " Wal ! " 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 then- 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, dhect from the 



