NOTES FROM THE PRAIRIE 99 



than that, we ate ' greens, ' — weeds, they called 

 them. It does not seem possible, but it is a fact, 

 that with all those fertile acres around them waiting 

 for cultivation, and to be had almost for the asking, 

 those people (they were mainly Hoosiers) lived on 

 fried salt pork swimming in fat, and hot biscuit, all 

 the year round ; no variety, no vegetables, no butter 

 saved for winter use, no milk after cold weather be- 

 gan, for it was too much trouble to milk the cows 



— such a shiftless set ! And the hogs they raised, 



— you should have seen them ! ' Prairie sharks ' 

 and * razor-backs ' were the local names for them, 

 and either name fitted them; long noses, long legs, 

 bodies about five inches thick, and no amount of food 

 would make them fat. They were allowed to run 

 wild to save the trouble of caring for them, and when 

 the pork-barrel was empty they shot one. 



"Everybody drove oxen and used lumber- wagons 

 with a board across the box for a seat. How did 

 we ever endure it, riding over the roadless prairies! 

 Then, any one who owned a horse was considered 

 an aristocrat and despised accordingly One yoke of 

 oxen that we had were not to be sneezed at as a fast 

 team. They were trained to trot, and would make 

 good time, too. [I love to hear oxen praised. An 

 old Michigan farmer, an early settler, told me of 

 a famous pair of oxen he once had; he spoke of 

 them with great affection. They would draw any 

 log he hitched them to. When they had felt of the 

 log and found they had their match, he said they 

 would nudge each other, give their tails a kink, lift 



