66 
KANSAS. 
the clouds cleared away, and we took a pleasant tramp over the 
hills. We met a party of Indians. Scarcely a day passes that 
motley groups of Delawares are not in our streets. Instead of 
going to Missouri for their groceries and clothing, as formerly, 
they come to Lawrence. They are very friendly, and look upon 
the rapid growth of the little town near them with as much appa¬ 
rent surprise as we would upon actual creations like the brain- 
pictures in fairy tales. 
Large stone buildings, which would be an ornament to any 
place, are fast being erected, while buildings of humble preten¬ 
sions, of wood and stone, are springing up with a rapidity almost 
equalling the wonderful genius of Aladdin. We can count al¬ 
ready fifty dwellings erected since we came; and the little city 
of less than a year’s existence will, in intelligence, refinement, and 
moral worth, compare most favorably with many New England 
towns of six times its number of inhabitants. 
Many people were in, in the evening. The wind was blowing, 
and I heard a rustling near me. I looked, but saw nothing. An 
hour later, as I relinquished my seat, and went to make arrange¬ 
ments for extra beds, a gentleman very positively said, “ I hear 
a rattlesnake.” Near where I had been sitting, the yellow-spotted 
reptile had crawled in between the last floor-board and the siding, 
and already his head had reached the window-casing. We had 
serious objections to his further progress towards the chambers, 
or to his greater length of days. After a moment’s more enven¬ 
omed rattling, all was still. Like the other, he had four rattles, 
and was undoubtedly looking for his lost mate. One of the 
gentlemen, Judge Conway, to whom the front room had been ap¬ 
propriated as a sleeping apartment, the mattresses being removed 
each morning, felt nervous about such companions for bed-fellows, 
and, to be prepared against the possible contingency of another 
similar visit, turned his boot-tops into one another upon retiring. 
15^/z.—We heard at midnight the rapid approach of a horse¬ 
man, and soon the loud halloa, with a western brogue, sounded at 
the door. A friend was very ill with cholera, and “ the doctor 
must go immediately over.” He hunted up his horse on the hill¬ 
side, and went, first sending to another physician down street to 
