Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/189

 KM OU.KCTIONS OK AN < >u> PIONEER. 179 without bread, and occasionally without Ixtth bread and meat at the sa time. On these occasions if we had milk, butter, and potatoes, we were well content. I remember on one occasion that several gentlemen from Oregon City called at my house in the Plains, and we had no bread. 1 felt pained on my wife's account, as I supposed she would he greatly mortified. But she put on a cheerful smile and gave them the best dinner she could. Oregon was a tine place for rearing domestic fowls, and we kept our chickens as a sort or reserve fund for emergencies. We had chicken, milk, butter, and potatoes, for dinner; and our friends were well peased. and laughed over the fact of our having MO bread. In May. 1S4.~>. we were entirely without anything in the house for dinner. I did not know what to do, when.my wife suirirested a remedy. The year before we had cultivated a small patch of potatoes, and in digging had left some in the irroiuid, which had sprung up among the young wheat. We ilnir a mess of these potatoes, which sufficed us for a meal, though not very good. That year I sowed about one acre in turnips, which grew to a large size. The vegetables most easily L r rown in new countries are lettuce, turnips, potatoes, and squashes. The country improved rapidly in proportion to our popu- lation. The means of education were generally limited to ordinary schools. In the course of three or four years after my arrival in Oregon, our people had so improved their places that we were quite comfortable. There was no aristocracy of wealth, and very little vice. I do not think I ever saw a more happy community. Ve had all passed through trials that had tested and established our patience; and our condi- tion then was so Hindi better than that of the past that we had -rood cause for our content. 1 Yu pers< us could IK> found to complain of Oregon. BECOME CATHOLIC- MY (JKNKKAI, Ufl.K AS Ti >< II A KOES AGAINST MK. In tin- fall of 1MI a Baptist preacher settled in my imme- diate neighborhood who had the published debate between