WINTER IN THE TERRITORY — STATE LEGISLATURE. 181 
It is Sunday to-day. We hear no pleasant sound of church-going 
bell, but, instead, the pounding on the little cabins in the forts. 
Th 3 hotel is again turned into barracks, and through the driving 
snow we see the sentinel at his post. Rough times our men see. 
Strong hearts and brave hands have come in to strengthen the 
town, leaving, in the rude cabins at home, wife and little ones with¬ 
out protector. The officers in the council-room sleep on the floor, 
or rude settees, when their tired energies must have some respite. 
Our people have great faith, great hope; nothing but these could 
keep them so brave, so full of courage, when dangers lurk around. 
A gentleman just returned from a town south, some miles, said, 
“ I have been in many^cabins where there was no floor, and the 
snow came in at every crevice, and the cold was intense, yet I have 
seen a wonderful cheerfulness everywhere.” They endure present 
suffering, and forego present comforts, in hope of an hour when 
the battlements of freedom shall be high and strong, and out of 
the rich and fertile earth shall arise pleasant homes, at the bidding 
of free labor. Their faith is more potent than that of the children 
of the wilderness, who looked to the brazen serpent for healing. 
Some gentlemen were in yesterday from a neighboring settlement 
which has been threatened by Missourians. Signals are agreed 
upon, so that, should an attack be made there or here, mutual and 
speedy assistance might be rendered. 
Pistols lie around the room loaded, and rifles are standing in 
safe places. How strange to our eastern friends would seem this 
familiarity with fire-arms, and stranger yet the necessity of carry¬ 
ing them to our sleeping apartments, and carefully watching them 
lest any dampness cause them to corrode! 
The last thought of our waking hours is now the possibility that 
ere the morning’s gray light the fiendish yells of the brutal assas¬ 
sins may be heard at our own doors, crying for blood. But we 
sleep with the same quietude as in dear old New Engl mid homes, 
where safety was the rule, and crime was met by swift-footed jus¬ 
tice. Even this sense of insecurity is not without its use, for, with 
the early waking, comes a deep sense of thankfulness for another 
night safely passed, our home and friends still spared, 
Feb. 10 th — Still cold. How the weather prophets have all 
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