Page:Six months in Kansas.djvu/54

50 boards were drawn along, on which, with a buffalo skin and blanket a-piece, Ned and a young friend laid themselves away at night to sleep. Half a dozen of Sharpe's rifles, with plenty of ammunition, and a drum to sound an alarm, made up the chamber furniture. A rude ladder stood against the wall, to afford access to the upper story.

This was all the work of Ned's hands; and at an outlay of sixty dollars, beside his labor! Shakes are two dollars a hundred; good boards thirty-five dollars a thousand. The want of comfortable shelter is the great drawback to new comers, and causes fearful sickness.

I went back to the hotel, feeling as though I could not sleep in a room where half of it was the open ground. My terror of snakes, mice, and vermin generally, sprang into the most intense life ; and would not be put down or reasoned with. The house was very full, and the barn too. Susie and Phebe slept upon the floor, in the room with four of us. Wearily we laid ourselves away, failing to find a chair, trunk, or even a nail, to spread our clothes upon. But the bed felt soft to us, and we had