154 WILD SPORTS IN THE FAR WEST. 



nothing to clean it from the straw ; however, we set to 

 work Arkansas fashion. The weather was bright and 

 dry, the road before the door as hard as a stone, but 

 dusty : a space about thirty feet in diameter was fenced 

 in, and swept as clean as possible ; flie sheaves were 

 unbound and laid in a circle, every two sheaves with 

 their ears together, one with the straw to the centre, 

 the other with the straw outwards ; six horses were 

 mounted, and ridden round and round, while two men 

 kept shaking down fresh com ; when it had been well 

 trodden out, it had to be sifted. 



I had probably worked rather too hard, caught 

 another attack of ague, and was obliged to lie down 

 till evening, when I felt somewhat better. This even- 

 ing we were visited by a friend of S.'s, or neighbor, 

 as he called himself, though living at a distance of 

 twenty-five miles ; but there was neither house nor 

 road between the two. He was called Jim Bahrens, 

 but S. whispered to me that he was nicknamed " lying 

 Bahrens," and indeed Munchausen "vvould have been 

 obliged to hide his face before him. He was very 

 talkative and amusing ; amongst other things, he told 

 us that he had but a small tract of land, but that it 

 was the best and most fertile in the whole world ; that 

 he could grow every thing on it, except corn beans (the 

 common garden bean), because the corn grows so fast, 

 that it drags the beans out of the earth. He invited 

 us to come and see him, telling us that he could kill 

 as much game in a day as would weigh 1000 pounds 

 for that he lived among large herds both of buffaloes 

 and deer. We promised to come, and see all these 

 wonders. 



