64 
KANSAS. 
tent life, and we learned much of the roughness of pioneer life at 
the outset. 
We staid so long, that E. was fearful we were lost on the 
prairie, and was just about setting lights in the windows for our 
guidance, as we reached home. Getting lost on the prairie in the 
darkness is an easy matter; and it has happened here, several 
times, that persons have wandered around nearly all night, trying 
to find the town, when at no time they were more than half a mile 
from it. 
7 th. — Mr. H. was very ill with an attack of pleurisy. Doctor 
being absent, I felt anxious, yet did the best I could. A mustard 
plaster and some simples removed the difficulty of breathing, and 
he slept quietly. He said he never was as sick before, but I was 
thinking he imagined himself sicker than he was. Just before 
night, and as I was wondering where E. could be, she came in, 
pale and almost breathless, with just enough left of life to say, 
“ 0, that rattlesnake ! ” I laughed at her at first; but being 
convinced that seeing a snake of some kind was a reality to her, 
and not quite liking the idea of their making a home in our neigh¬ 
borhood, we started out with shovel and hatchet for a battle. The 
spot where she saw him was very easily found, as the pail she had 
in her hand, while coming up the path from the spring, she set 
dowm w T hen she came upon him. She had heard a buzzing noise, 
like that made by a large grasshopper, for some minutes; but her 
attention was attracted by a small bird flying backward and for¬ 
ward across the path, and no great height above it, and did not, 
therefore, perceive the snake until she was within a foot of him. 
Hastily setting down the pail, as he lay there coiled ready to 
spring, she took another path to the house. We looked along 
both paths, above and below, and far out on the hill-side, but 
found nothing. His fright was undoubtedly equal to E.’s, not 
being particularly partial to the cold bath she gave him in setting 
'down her pail so hastily. 
9 th. — Leave home early to spend the day with a sick friend ; 
find her quite ill, lying on a straw pallet on the floor. One 
small window and door, at the other end of the room, afforded all 
the air there was; and about everything there was a general look 
