CHAPTER II
THE MOVE ON TO THE PRAIRIE
Our shanty.--Baking bread.--A wild cat.--A revolver accident.--Our shanty is built on the wrong land.--Moving.--The house built.--The furniture.--Breaking prairie.--Parker's cellar.--Planting beans.--Skunks.--A dark night.--Animals, insects, and reptiles.--Duck keeping.--Jack's geese.--My Pig
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ON the I8th of February, I871, having hired a couple of waggons, we
moved up on the prairie with all our luggage, and boards to build our
house with. On arriving at our destination, seven miles from town,
the large boxes were piled up, and the boards laid slanting from the
top to the ground for a roof, and thus we made a very comfortable
shanty. It was certainly none too large, though, for six of us
(Humphrey having rejoined us at Junction), and it was so low that no
one could stand upright in it at the highest part. However, with the
exception of the cook, we did
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not spend much time indoors-there was no door, though. We had an
iron stove for cooking in one corner, with the flue running through
the top, which once set fire to the building; but as we had
plenty of water handy we were able to extinguish it before it did
much damage. We were very well off for provisions, having a good
supply of bacon, biscuits, eggs, cheese, coffee, sugar, flour, rice,
etc. The cook, Harry Parker, made his first attempt at bread-baking
before we had been here many days, but was not over successful. The
bread was baked in a great iron pan, and was as hard as a well-done
brick, and about as digestible. The outside could not be cut with a
knife, we were obliged to use a hatchet to make any impression.
However, a few more trials soon improved the baking. For fuel we had
to
go about a mile down a little creek "~ jay-hawking." There were
some small trees growing which we chopped down and dragged up to
the shanty on wheelbarrows, not having any horses as yet. On one of
these excursions Walter Woods shot a wild cat, and was fortunate in
getting away without injury, as it
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attacks man when provoked. An old settler, who saw the brute
afterwards, said that he would not like to tackle one with a gun
only; he would want a good knife or an axe to finish him with. But
Walter saw some animal's eyes glaring at him from some bushes, and
blazed away, shooting the creature dead. It was then brought home in
triumph on the barrow, and after being duly admired was skinned and
buried. It was a good-sized animal, about twice the size of a large
domestic cat, or larger Its fur was very nice and thick, and made a
couple of good caps.
While living in this mansion we had our first sight of a prairie
fire, but as it was on high ground, where the grass was not rank, and
there was very little wind, it was not particularly fierce.
While living here we almost had an accident. We had amongst our
collection an old pepper-box revolver, a stupid thing, with six
barrels the full length of the machine, and not six chambers and one
long barrel as usual. Well, this old thing was loaded, and some of
the party, who had been practising shooting at a shingle target, were
standing about trying
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to make the pepper-box go off, but it would not. They snapped and
snapped, but without effect, until presently I took it up and pulled
the trigger; it hung there for an instant, and then gave such a kick
as to almost knock me over, and the bullets went flying just over the
heads of my friends. All six chambers went off at once for some
inscrutable reason, but fortunately no one was hurt.
The country around had all been surveyed by Government previous to
our settling, and divided into square miles,-sections, they are
called,-marked with a stone set in the ground. They may then be cut
up easily into the required lots-viz., eighty acres for an ordinary
settler, and one hundred and sixty X for any man who has been a
soldier in the Federal Army. When we began to look around us, we
found that our goods were all dropped upon land belonging to Parker
instead of to my father, and as the house was to be built upon land
belonging to the latter, all the boards, etc., had to be moved about
half a mile upon the wheelbarrows. As we had a stream to cross on
the way it was no easy task, but with one to push the barrow
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and another in front with a rope, we managed very well, getting
stuck; in the mud a few times, though, when it took all the available
hands to pull the vehicle out.
We had been, up to this time, favoured with remarkably mild weather;
in fact, it was so warm, that on the Eighth of February, the day
following our arrival on the prairie, we went and bathed in a stream
a little way from the shanty. In after years I never saw it warm
enough to do that with any comfort before May, and I verily believe
that had we had. such weather as we experienced in following winters,
that we should have all been frozen to death in our shanty. Of course
we had a few cold snaps. For instance, after the house was completed,
with the exception of the roof and we had moved in, we awoke one
morning with eighteen inches of snow on the top of our blankets, but
there was no very hard frost with it.
It may seem rather a funny thing to do, to go into a house before the
roof is on; but you see, as we built the house we robbed the boards
which formed the top of the box shanty, so that we were bound to
sleep without a roof in any case.
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We did all the work ourselves, having a carpenter's bench and plenty
of tools, and made quite a comfortable little house. Certainly it was
not very large, having only one room, fourteen feet by twelve, with
an attic above, but it was large enough, especially in cold weather,
and in hot weather we lived out of doors mostly. The attic was
reached by a series of holes cut in the wall for hands and feet,
which led to a trap-door in the ceiling, so that no room was lost by
having a flight of stairs.
For a table we used the carpenter's bench, and for beds we had the
large boxes ranged round the room, which also, when the blankets
were rolled up, served us as seats.
Almost in the centre of the room stood the cooking stove with an
iron pipe through the end of the house, so that with a row of drawers
and shelves for the crockery, our room was pretty full of furniture.
After the house was completed we had to set to work to improve the
land in all ways, and horses and oxen were bought to plough with.
Our first purchase was a yoke of oxen
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They were not long from Texas, and not more than half broken in,
and were a funny couple. To begin with, they did not at all match in
colour, nor were they much alike in other respects. We called them "Broad" and "Pretty"-queer names for oxen you will say. Broad
was about as fat as a slate and Pretty-well, he was not named
according to his looks anyhow, nor was his temper of the best
description. He was a most vicious and obstinate old brute. Broad
was a decent old chap, but awfully lazy, and would let us ride on his
back, being too lazy to trouble about the matter; he could easily
have fetched us off with his tremendous horns.
These animals were often a fearful bother to yoke up, as you might
get one in, and dodge around with the other for half an hour before
getting him under the yoke. When properly broken the oxen should
walk up when called. I guess we did not improve them, for we did
not know much about bullocks. I know once Walter was driving
them, and when he wanted them to stop he shouted out "Whoa!"
and at the same time hit them with a big stick. Whether they were
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supposed to go on or to stop, would, I am sure, have puzzled wiser
creatures than the oxen.
They were mostly used for ploughing, and mighty hard work it is,
too, the first ploughing, or "breaking," as it is called; as of
course the land that has been growing grass for centuries is one mass
of roots, and the plough goes pop! pop! pop! cutting through them,
sometimes coming to a dead stop at some extra thick bunch of roots.
Every now and then the share has to be sharpened with a big file. It
is very hard work for the animals, too, if they have much to do. For
a small plough with a twelve-inch share, two oxen or three horses are
generally used; but a good deal of breaking is done with a large
plough of about twenty or twenty-four inch share, and from three to
six yoke of oxen. Of course everybody does not own these things,
and considerable business is done in breaking prairie by the acre.
After we had broken a considerable piece of land the various crops
were put in. These consisted principally of Indian corn, spring
wheat, oats, barley, potatoes, sorghum, or sugar
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cane, and a good number of different seeds in a patch of ground
appropriated to garden uses. After this was all done fences had to be
built to protect the crops from stray cattle and horses. Vast herds,
belonging to people living miles away perhaps, wandered about at
their own sweet will, and as we had very good spring water on our
land it was rather a favourite pasture ground. Since that time,
however, a herd law has been passed, so that no cattle are allowed to
go about without a herder to keep them out of mischief during six
months- viz., May to November. Fences are, therefore, no longer
necessary, but still almost every one is trying to grow an
osage-orange hedge. This is a prickly shrub that grows very rapidly,
and bears a good deal of resemblance to an orange tree, including the
fruit, though that is not edible.
We bought several head of cattle soon after settling, and as they
were mostly cows with young calves, there was no difficulty in
keeping them-at home; all we had to do was to fasten the calves up.
The oxen and horses when not at work were picketed out on the prairie
by a long rope and
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a stake driven in the ground, until they were accustomed to the
place. The land where we had settled was very undulating, being on
the head of a creek; and to an inexperienced eye all the little
valleys or ravines, as they are called, were strangely alike, being
only distinguishable one from another by a few bushes, or some large
stones, or perhaps a little stream. For some time, then, it was
hardly advisable to go far from the house without a compass. I know
on one occasion my father and I started to walk to Junction City,
which lay to the north-west of us some seventeen miles, but the
country being divided into sections, we thought it better to go
straight west at first until we should strike a creek about six miles
away, and then turn to the north, and follow it until it fell into
the Smoky River. Well, we started all right, and proceeded for a few
miles as we thought in a westerly direction, but as the sun was
overclouded, we presently looked at the compass? and found, to our
astonishment, that we were travelling as fast as we could just
south-east. We altered our course at once, and after some time struck
Clarke's creek,
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from whence it was an easy matter to find our way to Junction. As my
father had some business at the bank, he hurried forward and left me
to follow. When nearing the town, while passing along the railroad
track, I captured a wild duck. It was sitting still, and I threw a
big stone at it and broke its wing. As I did. not then know how to
wring its neck, I carried it along to the Empire Hotel, where we were
to put up, and there asked the proprietor to do it for me. This he
did with a vengeance, for he took the unfortunate bird by the head,
and swung it round and round till the neck broke, and the body flew
across the room, scattering blood and feathers in all directions. The
proprietor did not seem very well pleased with the mess he had made,
and kicked the dead duck out in the snow; but I could not see that it
mattered much, as the floor was always pretty wet with tobacco
juice.
We returned home by another route, buying some cows on the way. Soon
after the house was finished Parker set to work to dig a cellar in
the side of a hill near by. I don't know exactly what he in
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tended to make of it, but he commenced very enthusiastically, and
soon made a bit of a show. Presently, though, he struck rock, and his
progress was not so fast, and it really took him several weeks off
and on before he got it to look much like a cellar. By this time the
sun was scorching hot, and as he was working with nothing on his back
but a thin shirt, and once not even that, his back became so burned
that it was a mass of blisters, and for a fortnight he could do
nothing. He never finished his undertaking, and ever since, although
it has half fallen in, the big hole has been known as "Parker's
Cellar."
I am afraid that we boys at first looked upon life on the prairie as
being all fun and adventure, and could hardly see it in its right
light; hence when we got some real work to do we were apt to shirk
it, as being hardly what we had expected. Quite early in the spring
after we had got some land broken, we were sent to plant about a
bushel of haricot beans in one part of the field. We were not to
plant a piece of land of any particular size, but to keep on planting
until all the beans were used up. We started all right, putting in
two or
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three beans every foot or so all along the furrow, but soon got tired
of it, and so finding that we were using up the beans but slowly we
began planting them a handful at a time. In this way we soon finished
our task, but when the beans began to grow and came up a dozen times
too thick, that let the cat out of the bag, and didn't we catch it
hot then! We hadn't calculated on that.
Upon first settling we were greatly troubled with skunks, which used
to kill our fowls and steal our eggs. Our first acquaintance was made
in this way. One day there was a great commotion among the
chickens, and upon my looking under a small corn-crib to see what
was the cause, a skunk snapped at my nose. Fortunately for me,
though, he did not reach it, so I made for the house, and called
Humphrey, who came and shot him with 'his revolver Jack and I then
dragged it out and skinned it, but the stench was so awful, that
after having salted the pelt and nailed it to the side of the house,
we could stand it no longer, and had to take it down and bury it.
Those who have never seen, or rather smelled, a skunk can form no
idea of the power of the perfume.
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The smell is quite unique, but has a flavour of onions about it, but
its pungency nothing can describe.
I have myself seen dogs after attacking one go away coughing and
gasping for breath; in fact, it has to be a mighty good dog to tackle
one.
One day we found a skunk in the milk-house, but were fortunately
able to shoot him quite dead before he had time to guard himself
with his noxious defence, otherwise I don't know what we should
have done with the house.
As we had several cows, and consequently plenty of milk and butter,
we had made a very nice cool house by digging out a spring and
lining it with flat stones. The clear cold water ran over the floor,
and a few stones we left a little higher to step on. A roof was made,
and the whole covered with earth, thus making a beautifully cool
place, which we should have been sorry to have had spoiled.
Walter Woods once rode over a skunk in the dark on horseback, and for
months the smell of the saddle was almost unbearable. The only way to
get rid of the smell from clothing, etc., is to bury it; water is
no good at all.
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There is a little story of the skunk as follows:-Sambo (a slave) had
been whipped for stealing his master's onions. One day he appeared
with a skunk in his arms, "Massa," said he, "here's de chap what
steal de onions! Whew! Smell him bref!"
After we had been settled a while we purchased a waggon and a team
of horses, and so occasionally went to town, and also hauled wood
from our land.
On one of our journeys we had a fine spill. We were returning with a
big load of wood piled up on the waggon frame, and were proceeding
along very quietly, when the whole thing collapsed. Humphrey and I
were sitting up on the top of the load, and were suddenly deposited
on the grass, much to our surprise. For a while we could not make
out the cause, until we found that the linch-pin which connects the
two parts of a waggon together had jumped out. Thus the horses
went on with the two front wheels, and left the two hind wheels
standing still, and of course down went the whole load. Fortunately
we were neither of us hurt, and after a little delay we rigged the
waggon up again and proceeded on our journey.
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One stormy, wet night during the early spring my father and Humphrey
were very late returning from town in the waggon, and got lost. It
was so dreadfully dark that Walter, who had gone out to look for a
cow, had got lost too, and as Harry Parker was away somewhere, we two
boys were left alone in the house. Well, we got our supper ready, and
waited about for some few hours after dark,-and it was pitch dark,
too,-and then, feeling rather anxious, we lighted a lantern, and took
it to the top of the hill behind the house.
We then shouted as loud as we could, and waved our lamp in the hope
that it might guide some of our friends home should they be in sight,
but we heard no reply. Unfortunately, almost as we got to the top of
the hill, our lamp blew out, though we heard afterwards that those in
the waggon had just seen a glimmer of it. We were then in a little
danger of losing ourselves, it was so terribly dark; but knowing the
lay of the land very well, and being on our bare feet, we managed to
keep our track all right. As we could do nothing else, we turned into
bed after shouting a bit more, and in another couple of hours all our
friends turned up.
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It appeared that my father came to the conclusion that they were not
going right, and declared to Humphrey, who was driving, that they
were going round and round. This Humphrey indignantly denied, so
to prove it, my father got out and stood still in the dark, while
Humphrey described a complete circle, and declared that he had been
going straight all the time.
After this conclusive evidence they unhitched the horses from the
waggon, and getting on their backs allowed them to go as they chose,
and were brought straight home.
On the way they stumbled over Walter, who had laid down on the wet
grass under an umbrella to pass the night, within a few hundred yards
of the house. In the morning they went to look for the waggon, and
found it all safe, and could see by the tracks that they had
described several circles. I believe that this will happen to any one
walking in absolute darkness or with eyes shut.
We used to come across some queer things sometimes when we boys
were wandering about. One day Jack and I found a great
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turtle, about two feet across, in a pond, but we did not know what to
do with him, till presently a neighbour,-for we had some after a
while,-who had to come down to haul water from our spring, came
along, and he soon fetched him out and took him home to make soup.
Once when we were at work hoeing the Indian corn, our dog began
making a great noise, and upon our going to see what was the matter,
we found him very busy with a big badger, although not daring to
attack it, as it was a large animal, and displayed a good set of
teeth. After ho]ding a council of war we set to ourselves, and the
dog and I engaged his attention in front with divers false attacks, I
brandishing a hoe very defiantly.
This gave Tack an opportunity to make a detour, and attack in the
rear. On the way he procured a big fence rail, and getting in
position, he brought it down with all his strength on the brute, and
as he-perhaps more forcibly than elegantly-expressed it, "knocked
the stuffing out of him."
Tortoises were very common. I had one for a pet, and made him
quite tame, so that I
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could open his mouth and put my finger inside without him biting. I
used to amuse myself by getting him to draw a little sledge that I
made. I bored two small holes in the shell at the back and put in
some wire loops, and hitched him to the sledge with string. FIe used
then to pull a little load of wood or anything else I put upon it. In
the autumn he ran away to go torpid for the winter, as their manner
is, but I found him again next spring, and of course recognised him
by his wires.
I also had another queer" critter" for a pet. It was a sort of
lizard, quite harmless, but decidedly ferocious in appearance. It was
commonly called a "horned toad," though
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why I do not know; for although it had plenty of horns, it hadn't
much toad about it.
We had also a good many queer things in the way of insects. There
was one called the "Devil's darning needle," a long narrow thing
about like a twig of wood; another, who always seemed to be in an
attitude of prayer, with his front legs held up like arms
supplicating; then there was a thing just like a leaf, so that one
could scarcely believe there was life in it; and then there were
great over-grown grasshoppers, which seemed almost too fat to hop,
with queer sorts of swords behind them.
In the evening we could hear some great insects drumming away very
noisily, something like the rattlesnake's rattle, which we took it to
be for some time; but we found that it proceeded from a creature like
a tremendous
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blowfly or blue-bottle, but of brilliant colours. There was also the
"Katy-did," an insect that keeps on making a noise which, with a
little imagination, can be made into" Katy-did, Katy-did!"
Among other insects apparently indigenous to the soil were regular
bed bugs, which were to be found in the woods, and, together with
sheepticks, would drop from the trees on to the unwary traveller. The
bugs seemed to prefer the black walnut trees more particularly, and
were often found on fence posts and rails under the bark. The
Colorado beetle, about which there was such a scare in England a
few years since, was always to be found with us, but seldom did
much damage, though sometimes present in large quantities. There
was another kind of potato bug which did much more harm-a long
slate-coloured insect. These we used to try and get rid of as much as
we possibly could. They were generally to be found on the top of the
haulm, and so we walked along with a pail and brushed the bugs in
with a stick, and afterwards scalded them.
An insect much more dreaded than either, though not on account of
the potato, was the
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chinch-bug, a little black thing about the size of a big flea, but
which sometimes infested the Indian corn, and sucked all the juice
out of it, so that it withered and died. Owing to their small size
one could not do much to check them.
There were several kinds of large spiders, some with bodies as large
as hazel-nuts, and legs two or three inches long, of a brilliant
velvety black, with gold or red spots. They were exceedingly
repulsive, and I should think that a bite would be dangerous. They
used to stretch their nets right across paths, in the trees, or long
grass, several feet wide. We amused ourselves by snapping at them
with our cattle whips.
Centipedes and scorpions were occasionally found, but I never heard
of any one getting hurt by them.
Sometimes, when bathing, we boys used to get stung by a peculiar
kind of caterpillar that was to be found upon the bushes lining the
pond. For a long time we could not make out what was the matter,
when brushing by the bushes it seemed almost as if the leaves stung
us; but, upon further examination, we
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found that there were little hairy caterpillars on the bushes that,
when touched, stung us rather sharply. The after effect was about
like a mosquito bite.
Of beetles there was an infinite variety, some of them of most
brilliant hues. Mosquitoes, too, abounded, and proved exceedingly
troublesome, both to ourselves and the cattle.
The latter were worried a good deal by big black flies,-fat things an
inch or more long,- which used to settle along the backs of the
cattle out of reach of their tails, and deposit eggs under their
skin. Here they remained till spring, when they had changed to great
grubs or chrysalises, and we boys used to go among the cattle and
squeeze them out with our
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thumbs. This is so universal an occurrence that prices of skins are
usually quoted in two ways--ordinary, and free from grubs.
Besides the noisy insects, the bull-frogs and the small frogs kept up
a continual roar or croaking, so that music was not unknown on the
prairie. The bull-frogs were tremendous creatures, measuring from
nose to toes a foot to eighteen inches; their roar can he heard a
mile or more. Fortunately they were not very numerous, but the small
frogs were in every pond in myriads, but by degrees they got thinned
out around us by our ducks.
In very wet weather the toads used to croak; at night, and they were
so plentiful in places as to be almost deafening. Snakes I will speak
of presently; but besides these we had a great variety of lizards,
and even chameleons. It was very funny to see these latter change
their colour. We would see one perhaps of a green or violet colour,
sitting on a big rock, and would throw a stone at him, when in an
instant he was almost invisible, having changed to a dull grey like
the rock. Besides all these things there were a good
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many wolves about us for some time, as our first attempts at
duck-keeping well proved. Ducks are rather silly birds, and will not
go into a house at night like hens, but prefer to take their repose
either on the water or else on the banks. Hence they fall an easy
prey to the coyotes, as the small prairie wolves are called.
We bought a few ducks when we first moved up, and after losing most
of them built a small sod house, and by careful attention managed to
keep them for some time, driving them in every evening. But one night
a stray pig broke the door down, and they were all carried away, save
one old drake. We had the pleasure of seeing a wolf disappear over
the hill in the morning, with the last duck on his shoulder. However,
the pig kindly left us eighteen eggs, and by rare good luck we
hatched them all under hens, and so got a good start again, much to
the old drake's satisfaction. It was very amusing to see the fuss he
made with the young ones.
Besides the coyotes, which we could hear barking almost every night,
there were a few grey wolves in the neighbourhood, but both
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are getting scarce now, as they are hunted a good deal.
An arrangement is made, that on a certain day all the young men for
some miles around shall start from the outer edge of a large tract of
country and ride towards an agreed centre, driving in any wolves they
may come across. By the time all the horsemen are in sight of one
another they may perhaps have six or eight wolves surrounded, which
are then shot and killed.
The grey wolves are considered rather dangerous, but rarely attack a
man unless in company, and goaded by hunger to desperation. The
coyotes are arrant cowards.
Besides our ducks Jack had three geese, but was not verysuccessful
with them; for one was carried off by a wolf, the old gander was
killed by a stray dog, and the other stupid old goose took to sitting,
and there she " sot and sot " till she died-literally of starvation,
despite all our efforts to make her feed. Thus ended Jack's
speculation.
I was equally fortunate with my live stock. I had a little pig given
me, and a very fine pig it grew; it was so long and so thin
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that we called it " the greyhound." It was a very intelligent animal
though, and was a good one at a fence; in fact, it was impossible to
keep it in a pen at all, and really became so knowing, that if upon
finding it in the garden we called the dogs, it would immediately rush
away and jump back into the pen before a dog had time to get it by
the ear. After a while, when it had got pretty big, or rather long and
tall, my father proposed to make pork of it, though more with the
idea of getting rid of the mischievous thing than anything else, and so
I traded him away, with a little to boot, for a heifer calf. The latter
grew till she was two years old, and then laid down and died, and thus
stopped my cattle-raising.
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