KANSAS COLLECTION BOOKS


EMIGRANT LIFE IN KANSAS

BY PERCY G. EBBUTT




C O N T E N T S.


CHAPTER I.

THE START.

London to New York.--Five days' travelling by rail.--Arrival at Junction City.--Our first Indians.--Wild Bill.--An offet of adoption.--Parkersville.--Texas cattle.--Captain Brown

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

CHAPTER III.

WE GET SOME NEIGHBOURS.

"Prairie" Wilson.--George Dyson.--A young grandmother.--"Dutch Jake."--The Quinns.--Gathering wild grapes and "tearing around."--Sleeping sixteen in one room.--Bill Harper and his ring.--John Tumey's "'ot potatoes."--A prairie fire.--The pet antelope.--The Garretts.--An evening party

CHAPTER IV.

SNAKE STORIES, ETC.

Our first acquaintance.--A novel weapon.--A false alarm.--A narrow escape.--A curious sight.--Instinct of pigs.--Our decision, and how we kept it.--Snake hunts.--Another kind of wild cat.--Varieties of snakes.--An easy victim.--Frogs and snakes.--Game.--Figure 4 traps.--Edible and other prairie plants

CHAPTER V.

FARMING AND HERDING.

Our crops.--Pig killing.--First Christmas on the prairie.--Losing cattle.--Visited by Indians.--Cold weather.--Moving our house.--Building stone.--Our mule and pony.--Soap-making.--Indian corn.--Our family party gets smaller.--The blue bird.--The Prices.--Our herd.--Sleeping out of doors.--Cooking frogs.--Bad water.--Breaking up.--The prairie fire

CHAPTER VI.

I LEAVE HOME.

Economising.--Zedekiah Blake.--Wood-chopping.--Rabbit-hunting.--The trapper.--A touch of earthquake.--A creek accident.--Ague.--A touch of scurvy.--Scarcity of nutton.--A whisky accident.--Maloy.--Council Grove.--How to make dogs hardy.--A camp-meeting

CHAPTER VII.

GRASSHOPPERS, ETC.

Arrival of the pest.--Attempted precautions.--Their fearlessness.--How the corn vanished.--The orchard stripped.--Down the well.--Their departure.--Their multitude.--The lost cow.--Indians.--The Indian's grave

CHAPTER VIII.

BACK TO THE PRAIRIE.

A split in the camp.--Early rising.--The county treasurer.--Living in a dug-out.--The Grasshopper Relief Fund.--The old home again.--The sick cow.--The disappearance of the Quinns.--A rifle accident.--Building a schoolhouse.--Road-making.--How the land is divided

CHAPTER IX.

MORE HERDING.

Another engagement.--The Cromptons.--Helping on the farm.--A fog.--Strayed horses.--Lost heifer.--Clearing Wilkinson's melon patch.--Snakes.--The wild bees' nest.--Mud-daubers.--The quarrel.--Bad weather.--My pony wears out

CHAPTER X.

LEAVING HOME AGAIN.

Premature arrangements.--An unexpected check.--Start for Junction.--A silent ride.--My note.--Down the track.--Commence work for Anderson.--Shucking and hauling corn.--A horse trading trial.--Tom Crofter.--Anderson moves.--A bad road.--The mail carrier.--The new farm.--Rats.--Leave Anderson

CHAPTER XI.

ANOTHER CHANGE.

The Whiteman family.--John Hardy.--Beer gardens.--Harvesting.--Fourth of July.--Heavy storm.--Swimming in the cornfields.--Horses on the railroad.--A funeral.--The Eureka Valley.--The lake.--Thrashing.--A panther.--Another chance of adoption.--My watch

CHAPTER XII.

CONCLUSION.

Good-bye to Kansas.--On the ice at Quincy.--Philadelphia.--The man's thumb.--The sharper.--On board the Pennsylvania.--Stuck in the ice.--Christmas and New Year on the sea.--Home again.--Ashtabula Bridge.--A few words of advice



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