IN the early days, when a field was ready to plant in corn, all the boys and girls of the neighborhood would gather there and some would drop the corn and some would cover it with hoes; and sometimes a young man and young woman would meet in the field and stop and talk and sometimes make a bargain to get married; and if it was very warm both would be barefooted; and when they made an engagement, that engagement was made to stay. The divorce court got no work there; and when they got married, all the people for miles around would be there, and all would contribute something to make up a big dinner of the best that the country afforded. The men would get together and cut logs and build them a house and most every family for miles around would give them a quilt or blanket, or pillow, and soon they were pretty well fixed. Those people raised boys and girls of large, strong brain, and some of them boys are in Congress, or the Senate, and some are on the Judges bench, and the girls filling equally as honorable positions. For remember, that our wisest and best statesmen come from the field. Any land that will grow corn will grow statesmen, and the statesmen who grow up between the rows of corn will do to depend upon anywhere. [Illustration] Billy and the Wolves. IN early days my Father got Wm. Sullivan to come and help him to butcher a beef, and it was getting dark when they got done, and Mr. Sullivan started home with some of the beef, and the wolves gathered around him so thick that he had to climb a tree to save himself, and he hollered with all his might, but it was windy and no one heard him until nearly morning. My Father heard him and started to go to him, but Billy hollered and told him not to come alone; then he went and got John Hall to come with all his hounds, and when they shot off their guns and the hounds made a great noise, the wolves left, and Billy came down almost chilled; and he said there was between thirty and forty of the wolves. Such was pioneer life in Illinois. Disadvantages.