Frontier and pioneer life -- Illinois; Shelby County (Ill.) -- Social life and customs
AT one time, in our early recollection, my Father bought a number of
yearlings early one spring, and the highest price he paid was three
dollars a head. He kept them until they were over two years old, and I
think there were sixteen steers among them, and he sold the steers to
Irvin Melton for eight dollars a head. One spring, when I was a small
boy, he sold to Wilson Perryman, his cousin, eight cows and calves
for eight dollars each—sixty-four dollars for all. He got that all in
silver half-dollars, and put it in an old tin bucket and sat it up on
the cupboard, and the same year, about September, he sold to John Selby
one hundred head of hogs for one hundred dollars, all in silver, and
he put it in the same bucket, and when the neighbor’s children would
come over, we would get it down and pour it out on the floor, to show
them how much money we had. Finally John Hodson borrowed it and entered
three forties of land, where New Hope now stands.
The Eggs.
SIXTY Years ago, when we were at work in the field, and would hear the
cranes, out on the prairie, making a great noise, we knew they were
nesting. They would go into the lakes and gather the rushes and pile
them up very much like a large shock of hay, so that it would come
above the water, then they would make a little flat place on top and
deposit two eggs on that flat place; the eggs was a little larger than
a goose egg, while they were shaped just like a quail’s egg, they were
white in color with small brown specks all over them. When we could get
a hat full of prairie hen’s eggs, and we believe no better flavored egg
can be found, when they were boiled, then with a dish of fresh butter,
a boy was surely fixed.
Good Friends.
THE Author feels very proud of having had the good influence of such
good friends as Pascal Hinton, James Rhoads, Berry Turner, Jasper L.
Douthit, Anthony Thornton, Henry Carpenter, John Kitchell, Sylvester
Cosart, and many, very many others. Some of them are gone, but we have
not given them up. The influence and friendship of such men has made
our pathway brighter, and has made life worth living; and all we are we
owe it to the influence of such good friends.
Love.
LOVE is the greatest attribute of God and the noblest trait of man.
Love redeemed the world and brings salvation to men.
Love casts out all fear, and purifies the heart.
Love rocks the cradle of virtue, and brings peace to the nations.
Love tunes the song of the lark, and paints the rose.
Love indites the prayer, and speeds the answer.
Love tempers the storm and hallows the calm.
Love smiles in every swelling bud, and whispers in every passing breeze.
Love softens the pillow and sweetens the dream.
No pen can ever write,
No mind can ever span
The length and breadth, the depth and height
Of the love of God to man.
When I and Betsey Married.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account