58 
KANSAS. 
delight, brought out some pies. Seating themselves around them, 
they were also soon devoured. When we arrived the visitors had 
scarcely left. 
The house, which, when finished, will contain two rooms on the 
lower floor, with an equal number upon the upper, is now only 
boarded upon one end, and partially upon the sides, enclosing one 
room, while the partition, which will be between the rooms when 
the whole outside is finished, but is now the only protection on 
the north, is partly of wood and partly of cloth; the roof, also, 
is shingled over the south part. The cooking utensils and stove 
are out of doors. 
In such houses as these, exposed to all the vicissitudes of climate 
and weather, and all the discomforts of such a life, there is many 
a person fresh from all the elegancies, the refinements clustering 
about a home in our eastern cities. The most I have met bear 
these hardships cheerfully, and hopefully looking to the hour 
when Kansas shall come into the glorious sisterhood of states, 
herself untrammeled by the dark rule of slavery. These priva¬ 
tions seem naught in the anticipation of such an hour. This spot 
is a most delightful location for a house. The bluffs, in a semi¬ 
circular form, partially enclose a lovely prairie of quarter of a mile 
in width between them. The house stands near the centre, be¬ 
tween the northern and southern ridge, while the bluff rises on the 
west very near the house. A lovely prairie stretches away nearly 
two miles eastward, with wood-skirted ravines, and Lawrence 
rising on an eminence beyond. Means alone are needed to make 
the grounds as beautiful as any one could desire; and our friends 
who have chosen the spot for a Kansas home are revelling in 
golden anticipations for the future. 
We ride home as the sun is setting behind massive clouds in 
orange and violet, in fantastic shapes, resembling Chinese pagodas 
and temples. The mutterings of the thunder, when we* are a little 
distance from home, warn us of the near approach of another 
shower, and by dint of much persuasion our friends remain with us 
during the night. 
21th. — A pleasant morning. The face of the earth looks 
oright after such a drenching. We laugh at my night adventure 
