WILLIAM WARREN. 323 



Kanzas in those days, and my tongue has never been 

 able to accommodate itself to the modern soft way of 

 speaking the name. 



I put up a log cabin on a good quarter-section which 

 had a stream running through it, and also had several 

 acres of timber two valuable things in that prairie coun- 

 try. Warren helped me in this, and also in splitting 

 enough black walnut and mulberry rails to fence in ten 

 acres. The land cost $1.25 per acre, but it cost $3 per 

 acre to break the heavy prairie sod. I was playing 

 farmer! , 



"One man in his time plays many parts, 

 His acts being seven ages. * * * " 



Warren and I kept bachelor's hall until past mid- 

 summer, when my house was in order for business, and 

 my little family came on from Wisconsin. Our work 

 was at a distance, and we took turns at cooking, and on 

 Sundays we cleaned up and washed the dishes. A very 

 good housekeeper to whom I told this asked in undis- 

 guised astonishment: "Didn't you wash your dishes every 

 day? Why, how did you get along?" 



"My dear madam," I replied, "you are a most excel- 

 lent housekeeper here in the effete East, but know little 

 how to manage a bachelor establishment in Kansas in 

 that early day. If we had washed our tin plates after 

 every meal, as is the custom in some places, the microbes 

 set free from the newly-turned sod would have attached 

 themselves to the tin, and our lives would have been in 

 danger from tintinambulacra. No, my dear madam, we 

 did not dare risk it; so we turned our plates over after 

 each meal to protect them, and only dared to wash them 

 once a week. This was a fearful risk, but we did it; I 

 now think it would be safer not to have exposed the plates 



