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Show 1836- 1837] Flagg's Far West 229 furniture of the apartment consisted of two plank- erections designed for bedsteads, which, with a tall clothes- press, divers rude boxes, and a side- saddle, occupied a better moiety of the area; while a rough table, a shelf against the wall, upon which stood a water- pail, a gourd, and a few broken trenchers, completed the household paraphernalia [ 211] of this most unique of habitations. A half- consumed flitch of bacon suspended in the chimney, and a huge iron pot upon the fire, from which issued a savoury indication of the seething mess within, completes the " still- life" of the picture. Upon one of the beds reclined one of the females to avoid the rain; a second was alternating her attentions between her infant and her needle; while the third, a buxom young baggage, who, by- the- by, was on a visit to her sister, was busying herself in the culinary occupations of the household, much the chief portion of which consisted in watching the huge dinner- pot aforesaid, with its savoury contents. After remaining nearly two hours in the cabin, in hopes that the storm would abate, I concluded that, since my umbrella was no sinecure within doors, it might as well be put in requisition without, and mounted my steed, though the rain was yet falling. I had proceeded but a few miles upon the muddy pathway when my compass informed me that I had varied from my route, a circumstance by no means uncommon on the Western prairies. During the whole afternoon, therefore, I continued upon my way across a broad pathless prairie, some twelve or eighteen miles in extent, and dreary enough withal, until nightfall, when I rejoiced to find myself the inmate of the comfortable farmhouse upon its edge from which my last was dated. Hillsborough, III. |