Page:Six months in Kansas.djvu/96

92 and is quite sure we shall all be well enough to attend. The week rolls round: the game hunt is very successful; birds, turkeys, ducks, squirrels, rabbits, and blackbirds, almost without number, are brought in to the committee of superintendence. The tables are well laid, and decorated with fancy cooking, got up under the skilful supervision of a lady from Worcester. A pie made entirely of blackbirds is an obj ect of general interest. Whether there were the proper nursery number, of "four-and-twenty blackbirds baked in one pie," I am not able to learn. But the party was very successful, and most satisfactory to a larger number of people than ever before met for amusement in this territory—many of the guests coming thirty-five miles. The good "Uncle Jeff" does not forget those at the cabin, whose appetites have outgrown "toast and tea," but brings in a dish which, if not a portion of the blackbirds, is quite palatable enough to satisfy even more particular people than those he serves so kindly.

By way of experiment upon the returned strength of our nerves, we have had two shelves put up for the dishes, and a floor