' ' ; > 

 
 HIDALGO 
 
 AND 
 
 HOME LIFE AT 
 WEST LAWN 
 
 BY 
 
 R. A. McCRACKEN 
 
 CHICAGO: 
 M. A. DONOHUE &- COMPANY 
 
 407-429 DEARBORN STREET
 
 Copyright 1904 
 BY R. A. McCKACKEN
 
 X*f ft ' ' - * svt^v&^t 
 ? 
 
 STORIES AND INCIDENTS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Hidalgo 13 
 
 Lesson of Cheerful Obedience 10 
 
 Howard, Ruth and Wendell 19 
 
 Description of Prairie Country 20 
 
 Camping at the Arch 24 
 
 Hidalgo Turned Loose 39 
 
 Upset with the Cart 43 
 
 Howard's Idea of the Temperance Question 44 
 
 Stories Concerning Ruth 45 
 
 Stories Concerning Wendell 46 
 
 The Story of the Pearl 46 
 
 Playing Marbles for Keeps 47 
 
 Hidalgo's Accomplishments 55 
 
 Sancho and Ponto 56 
 
 The Wolf Hunt 57 
 
 The Deer, Coon and other Pets 59 
 
 Sand Hill Cranes 62 
 
 Hidalgo Trained to Trot 64 
 
 What Hildago Likes to Eat 65 
 
 Lesson Concerning the Use of Money 66 
 
 Driving Trip Through Indiana 69 
 
 The Snake in the Bird's Nest 70 
 
 The Dredge Ditcher 73 
 
 Trip to Wenona and Starved Rock 83 
 
 Trip to La Fayette, Monon and Winnamac . . .' 101 
 
 Battle of Tippecanoe 102 
 
 Wading the Tippecanoe 113 
 
 Horse Thieves 113 
 
 Explanation as to States, Counties, Etc 126 
 
 Ground Squirrel Hibernating 132 
 
 5
 
 Howard's First Shot Gun 138 
 
 How Papa Shot the Prairie Chickens 139 
 
 Sleigh Riding with Hidalgo 145 
 
 Rules for Grown People as Well as Children 146 
 
 The Dead Cat Story 149 
 
 Regular Duties for Children 151 
 
 The Log Cabin 153 
 
 The Camp Dinner 156 
 
 Indians in Our Back Yard 160 
 
 West Lawn Bird Protective Association 163 
 
 Friendship of Billy and Shep 164 
 
 Wendell's Experience with the Pulley 175 
 
 Ruth's Hunting Trip 176 
 
 Teaching the Parts of a Section of Land ISO 
 
 Rally Day at Paxton 182 
 
 Stories Told in the Log Cabin : 185 
 
 Milwaukee . 195 
 
 Paw Paw Lake 201 
 
 The Furnishing of the Log Cabin 207 
 
 The Fire... . 214
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Ready for a Ride Frontispiece. 
 
 Ruth 17 
 
 Wendell with Hidalgo .' 21 
 
 The Arch 25 
 
 The Wabash River 27 
 
 The Bridge Above the Spring 31 
 
 Camp at the Arch 33 
 
 Going into Attica 37 
 
 Hidalgo Turned Loose 41 
 
 Come, Hidalgo 49 
 
 The Box Tipped . , .51 
 
 All Right Now "53 
 
 The Dredge Ditcher 71 
 
 The Picnic at Wenona. 77 
 
 Uncle Ruben and His Chickens 79 
 
 Ruth and Cousin Horace 81 
 
 The Old Mill 85 
 
 The Flowing Well at Deer Park 87 
 
 Starved Rock from a Distance 89 
 
 Starved Rock 91 
 
 The Pulpit 93 
 
 A Canyon near Starved Rock 95 
 
 A Canyon near the Rock 97 
 
 A Canyon near Starved Rock 99 
 
 Tippecanoe Battle Ground 103 
 
 Tippecanoe River 107 
 
 Picnic Grounds at Winnamac Ill 
 
 The Old Swimming Hole near Winnamac 115 
 
 Park at Winnamac 119 
 
 Bridge over Tippecanoe River 123 
 
 7
 
 This is Where I got a Fall 127 
 
 Threshing Oats ' ' 143 
 
 Hidalgo and the Thirteen Children 147 
 
 The Camp Dinner 157 
 
 Show Day at Paxton 161 
 
 Noma and Straud with Dewey 165 
 
 Ruth and Old Ned 169 
 
 Harry and Lileth 173 
 
 Harvesting at Uncle John's 177 
 
 Rally Day at Paxton 183 
 
 Our New Church 187 
 
 The Organ in Our Church 189 
 
 Paw Paw Lake 197 
 
 Cottages at Paw Paw Lake 199 
 
 Paw Paw River 203 
 
 Old Bridge over Paw Paw River 205 
 
 Sailing on Paw Paw Lake 209 
 
 Looking across Paw Paw Lake . 211 
 
 Before the Fire 215 
 
 After the Fire. . . .219
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 This little book is a boy's story which 
 girls as well as boys will enjoy. Although 
 the boy who actually wrote the story may 
 have passed many milestones, he is still a 
 boy in his interests and sympathies and ex- 
 presses himself as a wholesome boy would. 
 
 The tone of the book is thoroughly health- 
 ful. The simple story of a beautiful family 
 life is always uplifting, and the knowledge 
 that this is a true story will give it an added 
 charm for some children. The happy phil- 
 osophical way in which difficulties are met 
 and overcome, the thoughtfulness of each 
 for the others, the wise way in which the 
 children are taught, their kindness to ani- 
 mals, all help to make the book a valuable 
 and pleasant one to read at home or at 
 school. 
 
 There is much useful information given, 
 given too, in a simple, sensible manner. The 
 children learn local geography as they go 
 with this family on their long trips; they
 
 10 PREFACE 
 
 get practical arithmetic from the frequent 
 measurements that are given. Teachers, too, 
 gain much, by noticing, e. g., how clear and 
 interesting is the lesson in locating land, 
 and how easy it is to show the workings of 
 machinery when simple descriptions and 
 good pictures are employed. 
 
 Lessons in right living abound through- 
 out the book yet there are few sermons. It 
 is what the family are, what they do rather 
 than what they say that gives the book its 
 high moral tone. Children, teachers, and 
 parents will be helped by reading this sim- 
 ple chronicle of how one family live. 
 
 LIDA B. McMuRRY.
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 Hidalgo and Home Life at West Lawn is 
 a true story, and every incident is within the 
 knowledge of Howard or myself. The parts 
 of the letter have been sent to Cousin Weir, 
 who lives in Chicago, so there is no fiction in 
 the book. 
 
 I have taken upon myself the most of the 
 burden of writing, subject to the criticisms 
 and suggestions of Howard. 
 
 He wrote the story of the Rally at Paxton 
 and the running broncho and this story re- 
 mains word for word as first written. 
 
 I first prepared the little book merely to 
 preserve the stories and sayings of my 
 children. Since then, however, with the as- 
 sistance of Mrs. Lida B. McMurry and other 
 prominent educators, I have revised it, hop- 
 ing that it may be of use in the home and in 
 the school. R. A. MCCRACKEN. 
 
 Paxton, Illinois. 
 
 n
 
 PART I. 
 
 PAXTON, ILLINOIS, January 1, 1900. 
 Master Weir McCracken. Chicago, Illinois. 
 
 DEAR COUSIN WEIR: I am going to write 
 a letter to you. Papa says he will help me, 
 so it may be a pretty long letter. I will send 
 part of it to you each week, until it is 
 finished. I thought of calling my letter 
 ' ' The Story of Hidalgo, ' ' but as it is about 
 us, too, I will name it ' ' Hidalgo and Home 
 Life at West Lawn. ' ' . 
 
 Hi-dal'go is our horse. He is a dark sorrel 
 with a white spot in his forehead. He has 
 three- white feet with stockings to match. 
 When you see his beautiful head, small 
 pointed ears, and large hazel eyes, you will 
 say, "There is a good kind horse that is 
 wide awake and smart." He has good feet. 
 His legs are strong and sound. He has a 
 smooth and well made body, high shoulders 
 and an arched neck. When he walks or trots 
 he carries himself like a soldier. Hidalgo 
 has a mustache almost like a man's mus- 
 
 13
 
 14 HIDALGO 
 
 tache. It parts in the middle and grows 
 to be quite long at times. If lie did not do 
 so much eating it would stay long. They 
 say that a mustache is a sign of a good horse. 
 Hidalgo will be eleven years old the 21st 
 day of April, 1900: Papa bought him of 
 Uncle Dave when he was a year and a half 
 old. Papa rode horseback and led Hidalgo 
 to see how he could travel, and he trotted so 
 fast and looked so handsome that Papa said, 
 "This is the colt I want to raise for my 
 family horse."
 
 HIDALGO 15 
 
 PART II. 
 
 Papa brought Hidalgo home in the 
 spring, when he was two years old, and got 
 a man to break him. We commenced to 
 drive him to the top buggy that summer. He 
 has been our driving horse ever since. 
 
 We call him "Hi" except when we scold 
 him, and then we say Hidalgo then he 
 minds, because he knows we are scolding 
 him. But he gets few scoldings and no 
 whippings, because he is so well behaved. 
 The man who broke him did not use the 
 whip and we have not used it except to 
 touch him with it sometimes to hustle him. 
 Hidalgo is not a lazy horse. When a horse 
 is traveling or working it is not nearly so 
 hard on him if he is good natured and will- 
 ing. Some horses are so mean tempered that 
 they keep the driver cross all the time. Very 
 few men will abuse a kind horse. The mean 
 tempered horse has to work just the same. 
 Nobody likes him and he doesn't have a 
 good time at all. Everybody that knows Hi-
 
 16 HIDALGO 
 
 dalgo likes him. Papa says it is the same 
 with us work is easier and sooner done if 
 we go about it willingly and cheerfully. 
 
 When Papa began to drive Hidalgo to the 
 top buggy he thought it best to use a l ' kick- 
 ing strap. ' ' This is a strap placed over the 
 hips and buckled to the shafts on each side. 
 It was used on him for some time. Mama 
 drove him often while they used this strap 
 on him, and the men said, "What ! a woman 
 drive a colt that has to wear a kicking strap ? 
 She will get killed. ' ' Mama said that Hi did 
 not mean to do any harm but he might get 
 into trouble while playing. They quit using 
 a kicking strap on him by and by, but Hi 
 never quit playing in the harness, and some- 
 times when we are driving him we can see 
 his shoes shine when he kicks up'. Every- 
 body thinks he is the safest horse in town, if 
 he does play in the harness. 
 
 When I was a baby, Papa hitched Hi to 
 the sleigh for the first time and put the bells 
 on him. Mama brought me out and got into 
 the sleigh. Papa said, "I did not want you 
 and Howard yet: I intended driving Hi a 
 little to see how he liked the sleigh and 
 bells." Mama said, "0, Hi will behave,"
 
 Ruth. 
 
 17
 
 HIDALGO 19 
 
 and he did; he did not frighten at all. He 
 knows that Papa would not do anything 
 wrong to him so he never makes a fuss. 
 
 Hidalgo is older than I am. I was nine 
 years old Christmas : Ruth was seven Christ- 
 mas, and Wendell was five last May. Ruth 
 said to Aunt Margaret, "Howard and I are 
 Christmas gifts, and Wendell, he's a May 
 basket." 
 
 You would be suprised to see how Wen- 
 dell has grown. He is as tall as Ruth and 
 very strong. His hair is getting darker till 
 it is as brown as mine. His cheeks are as 
 rosy and smooth as a girl's but he has some 
 birds' egg speckles or freckles over his 
 nose. Ruth is big enough for her age but 
 boys grow faster than girls do. She is as 
 light on her feet as a kitten and she can run 
 as fast as the boys when we play "Tally- 
 1-0." Her hair is golden brown now and 
 there is plenty of it. We have a picture of 
 her when she was little. Ruth says, "That 
 was when I was a bald-headed baby. ' ' She 
 did not have much hair at that time and 
 what there was of it was light colored. 
 Ruth's and Wendell's eyes are blue; mine 
 are brown or hazel. Wendell is heavier set
 
 20 HIDALGO 
 
 than I am but I have more muscle than he 
 has. I suppose it is because I am older than 
 he is. I can chin a pole twelve times and I 
 can climb a rope better than most of the 
 boys. We children are all healthy. We 
 are out of doors so much and we take so 
 many trips into the country with Papa 
 and Mama that it keeps us well and 
 strong. 
 
 We live in a prairie country. When 
 Grandpa and his family moved to this place 
 they could ride in any direction across the 
 prairie. There were no trees except along 
 the creek. There are no hills or hollows and 
 no rivers near us. You would have to go 
 several miles to find a hill steep enough to 
 coast down. The land is not level. It is 
 rolling, as we call it, and stretches away in 
 all directions like a great meadow. When 
 they made the prairie into farms they set out 
 trees about the houses and planted hedge for 
 fences. The trees are large now. The 
 hedge, or Osage Orange, is a tree that has 
 sharp thorns on it. They set the young 
 hedge plants quite close together in a row. 
 When the hedge grows up strong it is trim- 
 med even and nice and it is kept about
 
 21
 
 HIDALGO 23 
 
 four feet high. In the summer when the 
 leaves are on the trees and hedges, and the 
 corn, oats and hay are growing the country 
 looks very pretty. 
 
 I suppose that our prairie country would 
 look strange to people who live among the 
 hills. We like to go where we can see the 
 hills I have never seen a mountain, 
 though. 
 
 When Papa was a little boy the town 
 cows were allowed to run out on the prairie. 
 In the evening the boys would go out on 
 horseback to drive them home. One even- 
 ing the boys found a prairie chicken's nest 
 and stopped their horses to look at it. 
 Papa's horse whirled around and kicked at 
 the horse next him. One foot hit the leg of 
 the boy who was riding the horse and hurt 
 him badly.
 
 24 HIDALGO 
 
 PAET III. 
 
 When Hidalgo was three years old, Papa 
 had him trained on the race track, to see if 
 he could trot fast, but he could not go very 
 fast then. Mama said, "He is too good a 
 horse to go on the track ; ' ' the driver said, 
 "He is too good a horse to drive to a sur- 
 rey. ' ' 
 
 That summer we drove about sixty-five 
 miles southeast to the "Arch" and camped 
 out for about a week. The ' ' Arch ' ' is nearly 
 like a bridge. Two creeks come together just 
 before they get to the Wabash River. This 
 makes a sharp point of land or rock. The 
 water wore its way through this point of 
 rock from one creek into the other. The 
 point of rock looks like the end of a steam- 
 boat and the "Arch" looks like a hole 
 through the boat. 
 
 We have about twenty-five pictures that 
 were taken while we were on that trip. I 
 was very young then but the pictures make 
 it seem as if I remember it all. There were
 
 27
 
 HIDALGO 29 
 
 eighteen of us. We had three carriages and 
 a wagon. Three boys rode in the wagon 
 which had in it our tents and the things for 
 us to eat. We started at 4 o'clock in the 
 morning and drove fourteen miles east be- 
 fore breakfast. I have been past there many 
 times since and I know the place very well. 
 We started again and drove until dinner 
 time. It was so hot we did not get along very 
 fast. We had twenty-five or thirty miles to 
 drive after dinner, so we began to hurry. 
 A bridge was broken and we had to go out 
 of our way to get around it. The people 
 began to tell us all kinds of stories as to how 
 far we were from the "Arch." One man 
 said we had just eighteen miles to travel, 
 and after we had traveled a long way an- 
 other man said it was just twenty-one miles, 
 and by and by we had fifteen miles to travel, 
 but the next man said it was nineteen miles 
 to the "Arch" and everybody told us just 
 to follow the straight road, but a "straight 
 road," in some parts of Indiana, is more 
 crooked than a rail fence. Everybody is kind 
 and obliging in Indiana, though. We iiave 
 traveled hundreds of miles in that state and 
 no one has ever said a mean word to us or
 
 30 HIDALGO 
 
 refused to let us have horse feed or to keep 
 us over night. They are kind to people 
 about them and kind to strangers. If you 
 stop at the door of either rich or poor, they 
 will make you welcome and give you the best 
 they have and if you get them to take any 
 pay for it, you will have to leave the money 
 where they will find it after you have gone. 
 In the evening just about dark we came to 
 the Wabash Kiver at the ferry, southeast of 
 West Lebanon, Indiana. Mama says that 
 where we went through the high horse weeds 
 before we crossed the river was the most 
 lonesome place she ever saw. We drove 
 down the steep bank and onto the ferry boat. 
 The ferry boat is fastened to a pulley run- 
 ning on a big wire rope that is stretched 
 across the river. By holding the rudder so 
 the boat will not be pointing quite straight 
 across the river, the running water pushes 
 it across. It was so dark when we got to 
 our camping ground that the men could not 
 set up the tents, so we slept at Mr. Watt's 
 house, and because they did not have beds 
 enough for all, they made beds on the floor 
 for some of us. Everybody felt blue. No 
 one in the crowd had ever been to the
 
 31
 
 33
 
 HIDALGO 35 
 
 "Arch" except Papa. He thought they 
 would all be satisfied in the morning, and 
 they were. When Georgia got up and went 
 out of doors she came back, saying, ''I have 
 seen the big ditch." She had looked down 
 into the stream, the banks of which are one 
 hundred and fifty feet high in some places. 
 In the morning we crossed lo the point of 
 land between the streams, set up our tents, 
 and sent after a load of straw to make our 
 beds. Everybody was happy and everybody 
 was hungry and thirsty all the time. We 
 could draw water out of a spring from the 
 top of a little foot bridge. We took a drink 
 every time 'we went over the bridge. We 
 stayed there a week and walked over the hills 
 and down in the creek bottoms which only 
 had a little water in them. We fished in the 
 Wabash River and rowed boats and took 
 carriage drives through the country. When 
 we started for home we drove east through 
 a little town called Rob Roy, and north 
 through Attica, Indiana, and stopped for 
 dinner at the Indiana Mineral Springs. 
 Sick folks go to these springs to drink the 
 water and take mud baths. At night we 
 camped southeast of Boswell, Indiana. A
 
 36 HIDALGO 
 
 man kindly told us to drive in to his timber 
 lot, in which was a straw stack. Here we 
 filled our bed ticks with straw. He showed 
 us plenty of wood already cut and. told us to 
 use all we wanted for our camp fire. Mama 
 went into the house and baked biscuits, be- 
 cause we did not have enough bread. After 
 supper we sat around the bright camp fire 
 and told stories and sang songs until it was 
 late. The next day we camped in the 
 Hoopeston fair grounds for dinner and by 
 4 o'clock in the afternoon we were home. 
 The weather had been pleasant and every- 
 body had enjoyed the trip.
 
 37
 
 HIDALGO 39 
 
 PART IV. 
 
 When Hidalgo was four years old Papa 
 began to leave him without being tied to the 
 hitching post. He would drive him around 
 in front of the house and turn him loose to 
 eat grass, while he went into the house to 
 get ready to go downtown. Sometimes Hi 
 would be loose for an hour or two with no 
 one to watch him. He would back up, turn 
 around, and go where he pleased. He never 
 got caught or upset the buggy. We have 
 turned him loose ever since in this way. 
 
 We do not use blind bridles on him. This 
 makes him a safer horse. When a horse is 
 prevented by his blind bridle from seeing 
 plainly a strange object which he must pass, 
 he becomes frightened. 
 
 One time Hi was loose with the buggy. 
 Another horse came running past him. Hi 
 jumped and ran about twenty steps. After 
 he saw what it was he stopped, but if he had 
 had blinds on he might have been running 
 yet, thinking that something dreadful was
 
 40 HIDALGO 
 
 after him. Once a dog chased a cow past a 
 horse having on a blind bridle. The horse 
 jumped forward, broke the tugs and hold- 
 back straps and got out of the shafts. Then 
 he turned around and looked to see what had 
 frightened him. He seemed to think it queer 
 that it was only a cow and a dog. He im- 
 agined it to be at least a bear or an elephant. 
 The man took his knife and cut the blinds off 
 right there. 
 
 One time we hitched Hi to the sleigh, put 
 the bells on, and tied him in the buggy shed. 
 When we came out to go down town, there 
 was nothing to be seen but the buggy shed 
 and the sleigh tracks. We were just a little 
 bit uneasy and followed the tracks till we 
 found Hi pawing the snow away to get some 
 grass. Hidalgo used to get out of the stable 
 quite often. We never found any sure 
 way of keeping him in his box stall till 
 this winter, for he can loose a hook, a snap 
 hook and a snap and untie almost any 
 thing. 
 
 When the door is hooked on the other side 
 he jars it with his front foot until the hook 
 jumps up and lets him out, and even when 
 you put a nail above the hook it will not al-
 
 "2 
 
 ffi 
 
 41
 
 HIDALGO 43 
 
 ways keep him in, for he springs the door 
 until it comes open. We fixed the door to 
 the stall by putting a bar on the outside 
 and dropping it into the notches. But the 
 door between his stall and the next one has 
 never been fastened to stay. We tied it with 
 a rope and tried a wire and everything we 
 could think of, and it was all the same. We 
 would do it and Hi would un-do it. We put 
 a hook low down on the other side of the 
 door where we thought Hi couldn 't find it if 
 he could reach it, and where he couldn't 
 reach it if he could find it; but he found it 
 and reached it and had the door open before 
 we were out of the stall. 
 
 When I was two years old and Ruth was 
 a baby, Papa and Mama went with us out to 
 Grandpa 's. It was so muddy that we rode 
 in the cart. When we came into town in the 
 evening it was very dark. The electric 
 street lights blinded Papa so that he drove 
 one wheel up on a bank of dirt. The cart 
 upset. This upset Hidalgo and we all fell 
 in the mud. Papa was on the down side and 
 he tossed Mama over him as we went down 
 and she lost Ruth in the blankets. Before 
 Papa could get up Mama was pulling at the
 
 44 HIDALGO 
 
 blankets to find Ruth. I don't know about 
 me, but I guess I was all right, for it did 
 not hurt any of us. A man saw us tumble 
 and came to help us. They had to take off 
 every bit of Hi's harness, before he could 
 get up. Hi did not struggle. They hitched 
 him up again and we got home all right. 
 
 Papa says that he will tell me some stories 
 to put in my letter but that I must tell some 
 stories about myself as well as about other 
 people. 
 
 One time I asked Papa what cats were for, 
 and he said to catch mice; after a little I 
 asked him what mice were for, and he said 
 they were for the cats to eat. Then I asked 
 him of what use are cats and mice ? He said 
 I suppose you think we could get along 
 without either cats or mice! He said that 
 there were many things that we could not 
 understand. 
 
 There used to be a man who tied his mules 
 on our street and left them and his dog till 
 very late. I talked about it a great deal and 
 wondered where the man was. Papa said, 
 "Maybe he is in the saloon or in jail." I 
 asked him why they let them sell the man 
 beer and then put him in jail for drinking it.
 
 HIDALGO 45 
 
 Papa told me to go and ask Grandma, for 
 she belongs to the Woman's Christian Tem- 
 perance Union. This is about all the stories 
 I know about myself: I can tell you some 
 about Ruth and Wendell. Ruth is a good 
 girl. When she wants anything and can't 
 have it, she almost always gives up without 
 making a fuss. When she was little she 
 would say, "I would like to have it, Papa, 
 but I won 't ' cuss ' about it. ' ' She couldn 't 
 say "fuss": Papa said it meant the same 
 thing. 
 
 She says that the reason the old hen 
 flops around after her head has been cut off 
 is because she is hunting her head. Another 
 time Ruth said, "Oh, Papa! I believe that 
 spring has come: we have had three nice 
 days in procession." When she was about 
 four years old Papa took her with him to 
 La Fayette. They stopped at several places 
 looking for the son of a man who had died. 
 After a while they went to the telephone of- 
 fice. Ruth said, "Papa, are you going to 
 telephone to the man who is dead ? ' ' When 
 she saw the girl at the telephone office with 
 the receiver held to her ears by springs she 
 asked, "Papa, can't the lady get loose?"
 
 46 HIDALGO 
 
 The other day Wendell saw the Dentist, 
 and said, "There is Dr. Given, the tooth- 
 ache man. ' ' One morning I fooled Wendell. 
 He had cut his finger and Mama had tied it 
 up before he went to bed. In the morning 
 the rag was off. The cut had closed up. He 
 said to me, "Howard, I can't find the cut." 
 I said, "Why, Wendell, the cut is in the 
 rag. ' ' And I almost made him believe it. 
 
 Wendell teased Mama the other day when 
 we had company for dinner. He slyly 
 brought up the corner of his napkin as if it 
 were the corner of the tablecloth, wiped his 
 mouth with it and said, l i This is the way I 
 do when we haven 't company. ' ' He showed 
 them afterwards that he was using his nap- 
 kin and not the tablecloth. 
 
 The other morning, about daylight, I 
 heard him in his sleep, smacking his lips and 
 kissing. I called, "Papa, Wendell is kiss- 
 ing the pillow and thinks it is you." He 
 has a habit of kissing Papa this way when 
 he first wakens. 
 
 He came to Mama the other day feeling 
 very badly because the largei boys did not 
 want him to play with them. Mama told 
 him that she was sorry but it could not be
 
 HIDALGO 47 
 
 helped. She said that he must not think that 
 every unpleasant thing would do him harm. 
 She told him a story that she had read. It 
 was about how pearls are formed. 
 
 A grain of sand gets inside of the oyster 's 
 shell, and hurts the oyster. The oyster does 
 not sit down and cry about it, he just puts a 
 soft covering around the grain of sand which 
 stops the pain and by and by when the cover- 
 ing hardens, it is a pearl. 
 
 Mama said that often "grains of sand" 
 get into our lives, but instead of letting them 
 make us cross and fretful, we should control 
 them and learn to be patient and by and by 
 they would be as pearls to us. 
 
 Mama then told Wendell that if he would 
 go and ask some of the neighbor children, of 
 his own age, to come and play with him, 
 she would play with them and teach them 
 some games. That made pearls out of his 
 troubles, because we children like to have 
 Mama in our games. 
 
 Sometimes, when the weather is bad, we 
 coax Papa to play marbles with us in the 
 house. When the weather is nice we play 
 marbles at school. A great many of the boys 
 play for keeps, but I have promised Mama
 
 48 HIDALGO 
 
 that I will not do that. She says that is the 
 way boys commence to gamble, and that 
 when one becomes a gambler his chance of 
 doing much good in this world is very small.
 
 o 
 
 3" 
 
 TJ 
 S 
 
 I 
 
 49
 
 51
 
 53
 
 HIDALGO 55 
 
 PART V. , 
 
 When Hidalgo was five years old, Papa 
 trained him to come under the shafts and to 
 back into his place. Since then Papa takes 
 hold of the point of the left shaft with his 
 left hand, holds the shafts up, snaps his 
 fingers and Hi comes around under the 
 shafts and back into his place. People like 
 to see him hitched. Harold Stevens says 
 that Hi knows more than some people. We 
 had him down town the other 'day and un- 
 h'itched him to get the harness mended. As 
 soon as he was loose he began to hunt for 
 apples, potatoes or anything he could find in 
 front of the grocery stores. But when Papa 
 snapped his fingers Hi went back into the 
 shafts. The men thought him a well trained 
 horse. 
 
 When we are driving Hidalgo single, and 
 he wants to stop trotting and walk awhile, he 
 will turn his head to the right and his body 
 to the left to tell us that he is tired and wants 
 to slow up. When we drive him with an-
 
 56 HIDALGO 
 
 other horse he will tell us when he gets tired 
 but he will not allow the other horse to get 
 ahead of him. 
 
 Hidalgo can't talk but he can come very 
 near it. He will tell us if we have forgotten 
 to feed him. Sometimes Papa tells us to 
 feed at the usual time, if he does not expect 
 to get home till it is late. When Hidalgo 
 hears Papa coming he calls to him or whin- 
 neys. One way of whinneying means ' ' How 
 do you do ' ' and another way means ' * I want 
 my dinner," and if it is 3 o'clock in the 
 afternoon or 9 o'clock at night, he will tell 
 Papa if he did not have his feed. Papa will 
 feed him and then tell us children that we 
 forgot to feed Hidalgo. We have never 
 caught Hi storying about his feed. 
 
 When Papa was a boy he and his brothers 
 had three dogs. One was named ' l Sancho. ' ' 
 He was a Newfoundland dog. He was black 
 and had long hair. The other two were bird 
 dogs. One was a brown Pointer called 
 1 ' Ponto. ' ' The other was a white setter. 
 
 Sancho and Ponto were good watch dogs. 
 They slept in the store and people could walk 
 along the sidewalk all through the night and 
 the dogs would not care. But if anyone came
 
 HIDALGO 57 
 
 to the door they would bark. If Papa left 
 the store the dogs barked if anyone came to 
 the door, but they were not cross dogs. 
 Sancho made friends with the old cat that 
 kept her kittens in the closet at the store. 
 He would lie near the kittens and watch 
 every move they made. He would not allow 
 any stranger to touch the kittens. One day 
 he carried a kitten out of doors, but he did 
 not hurt it at all. 
 
 Sancho and Ponto hunted rabbits together. 
 One time Sancho was close upon a rabbit, 
 inside a board fence. Ponto was keeping 
 up on the other side. The rabbit thought it 
 had better get through the fence to get away 
 from Sancho. Ponto caught it as it came 
 through. Sancho caught it too and said, 
 "Let go of my rabbit. I chased it and I 
 caught it. ' ' Ponto said, " It is not your rab- 
 bit. I caught it as it came under the fence 
 when it was getting away from you. ' ' 
 
 One time when Papa was a boy, he and 
 several other boys took the dogs and went 
 to hunt wolves. They came to where some 
 boys were chasing rabbits on a big pond that 
 was frozen over and had tall grass in it. 
 They started Sancho and Ponto after the
 
 58 HIDALGO 
 
 rabbits and followed on their horses. The 
 other boys said, "Your dogs can't catch 
 rabbits. They go right through the grass 
 after them and can't run fast enough that 
 way." But Papa told them to wait and see. 
 The other dogs jumped high when they ran 
 after a rabbit and so lost sight of it. Pretty 
 soon Sancho and Ponto showed them that 
 they could catch more rabbits than the other 
 dogs. That evening they chased two wolves 
 but could not catch them. The wolves could 
 run faster, in the snow, than the horses, and 
 the horses could run faster than the dogs. 
 They chased wolves a good many times after 
 that, but never caught any. 
 
 One time Papa shot a wolf with a double- 
 barreled shot gun. He and some other boys 
 were liunting prairie chickens. They had a 
 team of horses hitched to a light wagon. 
 They drove across the paririe letting the 
 dogs hunt. As soon as the dogs began to 
 trail chickens one boy would drive the team 
 and the rest followed the dogs and shot 
 chickens. In the evening they saw, away 
 across the prairie, a wolf. Papa told the 
 boys that if they would drive toward the 
 wolf he would try to get a shot at it. They
 
 HIDALGO 59 
 
 drove up close enough so that Papa shot the 
 wolf, but the firing of the gun, out of the 
 wagon, frightened the horses. They jumped 
 and broke the neck yoke which let the wagon 
 tongue down. Then the horses ran and 
 pulled the tongue into the ground. The 
 wagon went up into the air. Papa jumped 
 and came to the ground on his knees. He 
 held his gun, though, so that it did not go 
 off, although the other hammer of the gun 
 was up. The horses ran away and the boys 
 had to walk about four miles. They found 
 the horses at home. 
 
 When Papa was a boy he tried to make 
 pets of two young wolves, but he could not 
 tame them. They were the Grossest things 
 you ever saw and had all kinds of smell 
 about them. One got out and killed about 
 two hundred tame chickens before they suc- 
 ceeded in shooting it. 
 
 Pets are nice if they are tame. We tried 
 to tame a prairie chicken once but you can- 
 not tame them either. When you find a 
 prairie chicken's nest where only half of 
 the little chickens are out of their shells, the 
 old hen starts off as if she had a broken 
 wing. She wants to make you chase her, to
 
 60 HIDALGO 
 
 get you away from her nest, but you cannot 
 catch her, and the little chickens will be hid- 
 den in the grass before you 'can pick one up. 
 They are wild from the time they get out of 
 the shell. 
 
 We had a pet coon one time that could 
 crack hickory nuts. He could also catch 
 chickens. One day we saw him catch a 
 chicken with his back paw as easily as he 
 could have done it with his front paw. His 
 chain was too short and so he just reached 
 out and caught that chicken with his hind 
 paw. Their paws are nearly the shape of a 
 person's hand. We gave the coon away. 
 Some dogs killed it not long afterwards. A 
 coon is a good fighter and can whip most 
 dogs. 
 
 When Uncle Dave lived on the farm he 
 had fine horses, hogs, sheep and cattle. He 
 had small yellow cows, called Jersey cows. 
 The calves were as pretty as deer. He had 
 some deer too. There were two old deer and 
 a little spotted fawn. They were the West- 
 ern or White tailed deer. He kept them in 
 a lot or park between the house and the road 
 where there were nice shade trees and grass. 
 Deer do not become very tame but these deer
 
 HIDALGO 61 
 
 would eat oats out of your hand. You ought 
 to see deer run. They gather their legs close 
 up under them when they leap, and each time 
 they touch the ground they jump again as if 
 they were on springs. When they are at full 
 speed they jump twenty to thirty feet each 
 time. 
 
 Uncle Dave's deer, in playing, would 
 jump seven feet high. The fence around 
 the park was only six and a half feet high 
 but they did not jump out. Deer will eat 
 the leaves off the trees as high as they can 
 reach and by standing on their hind feet 
 they can reach as high as a man can. 
 , One time my Papa and your Papa had 
 four wild geese. They let them run loose 
 around town. The old gander was very 
 cross. He would hurt children. They also 
 had a brant (a brant is* nearly like a wild 
 goose), a snipe and a Sand Hill crane. One 
 evening a man said that he had seen a crane 
 flying over town very low. Papa said, "I 
 believe it was mine," and so it was. Its 
 wings had gotten well and it flew away. 
 Papa had a young Sand Hill crane and it 
 followed at his heels so closely that it died 
 from too much tramping on.
 
 62 HIDALGO 
 
 A Sand Hill crane builds her nest in a 
 pond where there are plenty of rushes and 
 builds it so high that she can stand in the 
 water astride of the nest, because she cannot 
 coil up her legs. She lays two eggs that are 
 larger than goose eggs. I have never seen a 
 crane's nest but Papa has. I know of sev- 
 eral kinds of cranes. 
 
 There is a small blue crane and a white 
 crane and sometimes we see, away up in the 
 sky almost out of sight, a large white crane 
 which has black spots on its wings. We 
 have never seen them close to the ground. 
 When Uncle Dave was coming home with 
 his first shot gun he shot at one of these 
 cranes. The crane was only about half a 
 mile from the earth. 
 
 The Sand Hill Cranes are light colored, 
 and have bodies as large as a Thanksgiving 
 turkey, with legs and neck nearly twice as 
 long as a turkey's. They are very fine eat- 
 ing. Papa has shot quite a number of them. 
 They used to be very plentiful here. He saw 
 a flock once that covered the prairie like 
 sheep as far as he could see. He could not 
 get close enough to shoot any of them. When 
 he shot at them the nearest ones flew a little 
 way then lit again.
 
 HIDALGO 63 
 
 Sand Hill Cranes play games. They hop, 
 skip and jump like a lot of boys. Boys can- 
 not jump as cranes jump though, for the 
 cranes jump over each other without using 
 their wings. The whole flock take part in 
 the play. 
 
 When Sand Hill Cranes are on the ground 
 it is hard for them to get on the wing. They 
 will run as fast as they can and then start 
 their wings to working. Sometimes the 
 hunters will ride horseback. When they see 
 the cranes are about to fly they run their 
 horses towards them and in this way get 
 within gun shot before the cranes can get 
 into swift motion. 
 
 Sand Hill Cranes fly high in circles as the 
 white and black cranes do. You can hear 
 them calling some time before you see where 
 they are. They rise higher and higher, while 
 circling, till they are out of sight. 
 
 It is only when the sky is its bluest and all 
 the world is asleep in the daytime that you 
 can see the cranes circling in the sky. Their 
 far-away calling makes everything seem 
 more quie.t.
 
 64 HIDALGO 
 
 PART VI. 
 
 When Hidalgo was six years old Papa 
 asked the trainer to take him again and train 
 him to trot faster. The training made him a 
 great deal better horse for he got so he could 
 trot faster than any horse about here and it 
 made him so steady that we could race him, 
 on the road, with any horse and he would 
 not -break from the trot. I believe that Hi- 
 dalgo would race with a fire engine and not 
 break. Most horses, even if they are fast 
 on a race track, get excited when raced on 
 the roads and will break into a gallop. 
 
 One time Papa and we three children were 
 coining in from the country. We were in 
 the old buggy. A young man came up be- 
 hind us with a pretty good horse. There 
 were two tracks so he came alongside of us. 
 We started to race with him. Hidalgo was 
 soon ahead, but because we were holding him 
 in and because there was no keeper on one 
 end of the single-tree, Hi's tug came loose. 
 Papa said, ' ' Hold on, Mister, my tug is off.
 
 HIDALGO 65 
 
 Wait till I fix it and I will give you a race. ' ' 
 But the man did not hold on, he just kept 
 going. We couldn't catch up with him be- 
 fore he got to town. Euth and Wendell were 
 on their knees holding to the dashboard. 
 Ruth said, "0, my! wasn't that too bad! 
 That was such a nice horse and we would 
 have had a nice race if the tug hadn't come 
 off." 
 
 I believe that Hidalgo likes to race better 
 than to eat, but there is nothing else ahead 
 of eating with him. He will eat anything we 
 eat except meat. He will eat gravy, though, 
 and he eats pickles, apples and all kinds of 
 fruit, peanuts, candy, bread, cookies, sweet 
 milk, sour milk, and pancakes. When he 
 gets out of the barn he will come to the back 
 door to see if we have anything left from the 
 table for him to eat. After that he will go 
 and eat grass. When we have candy, apples 
 or raisins about us we can hardly get him 
 hitched up. He follows us around and begs 
 for what we are eating. One day Papa had a 
 piece of hoarhound candy in his mouth and 
 Hi smelled it. He asked for some of that, 
 even. He has not learned to drink or smoke 
 though for he never smells whiskey or to- 
 bacco on Papa 's breath.
 
 66 HIDALGO 
 
 But Hidalgo isn't a hog if he does eat 
 scraps from the table, for he knows when he 
 has enough. He has never hurt himself eat- 
 ing. Papa says that he has thought of try- 
 ing the plan of leaving the oat bin open so 
 that he can eat whenever he is hungry like 
 the man we heard of, who said they had only 
 one pocketbook in their family, and each 
 person used what money he needed from it. 
 Papa says it is right to have our own things 
 and our own money, but that he would 
 rather we should learn to use our money in 
 a right way than to save it up. He does not 
 want us to save up our money while we are 
 little but says that after we have commenced 
 to earn money we can save it. He knew some 
 children once, whose father and mother were 
 very liberal people. The children were 
 taught to save up money. They deposited 
 their money in the bank and then begged 
 candy from the other children. He is afraid 
 those children will be misers and beggars. 
 He says that people count what you are, and 
 what you do, more than what you have. 
 
 When Papa was a boy he saved up three 
 dollars and he figured for three months be- 
 fort the 4th of July how many bunches
 
 HIDALGO 67 
 
 of fire-crackers he could buy with it. He 
 says that it is not good to save up money 
 and then spend it for something that is of 
 little use. Papa had more trouble in getting 
 "Wendell to spend his money than to get him 
 to save it. He would not use his own money 
 for anything. If he wanted to buy anything 
 he would ask Papa for the money instead of 
 using his own, but he is getting to be pretty 
 good about it now. He is not going to be 
 stingy. 
 
 Last summer Wendell asked how they 
 make money. Papa told him that the Gov- 
 ernment made it, and that we worked so that 
 we could get some of it. After awhile Wen- 
 dell went to pushing a neighbor's lawn 
 mower. Papa called to him and told him to 
 quit, that it was too hard work for him, but 
 Wendell kept right on. Papa called him 
 again and said, "Wendell, quit that, it is too 
 hard on you and there is no money in it for 
 you." Wendell said, "I'm going to get 
 some money from the Government. ' ' When 
 the neighbor heard about it he gave Wendell 
 a dime, so there was money in it after all. 
 
 Wendell and Donald play together a great 
 deal. Donald is four years old and he lives
 
 68 HIDALGO 
 
 across the street from us. One time Donald 
 stayed for supper with Wendell and we had 
 ice cream which was frozen pretty hard. 
 Donald was slow about eating his ice cream 
 and by and by, after it began to melt he said, 
 "I like the juice the best." 
 
 When I write again I will tell you about 
 our trip through Indiana.
 
 HIDALGO 69 
 
 PART VII. 
 
 The summer that Hidalgo was seven years 
 old we made quite a trip with him and an- 
 other horse named Tony, through Indiana. 
 Cousin Harry was then living near Craw- 
 fordsville. We enjoyed the whole trip but 
 we had the best time at Cousin Harry's. 
 While there we picked and ate grapes and 
 peaches and ran all over the farm. Going 
 into Crawfordsville we drove down a very 
 steep hill. It is a beautiful, clean city, with 
 many fine buildings. We drove past the 
 Wabash College buildings. 
 
 Indiana has fine schools and colleges all 
 over the state. Mama told us that Craw- 
 fordsville is the home of Lew Wallace, who 
 wrote Ben Hur, and of Morris Thompson, 
 who wrote so much about archery and out of 
 door life. Indiana has many good writers. 
 
 We found some very bad roads in the 
 northern part of Indiana. The sand, in some 
 places, was so deep that it made the horses 
 very tired. Sometimes the people haul
 
 70 HIDALGO 
 
 black dirt or straw and scatter it on the 
 roads on the sand hills so that the horses and 
 wagons will not sink into the sand. Some 
 of the wagon wheels have tires that are six 
 inches broad, to keep them from cutting into 
 the sand. Indiana has many gravel roads 
 and rock roads. They are the finest roads 
 we ever drove over. 
 
 Earl Cannady, Wendell and I went out to 
 Grandma's yesterday to visit Uncle Ralph. 
 Uncle Ralph is only six months older than I 
 am. On the road out we saw a queer sight. 
 Four or five king birds were flying around 
 and chirping and crying above a tree that 
 was in the hedge fence. It was a small hedge 
 tree that had been allowed to grow up. We 
 wondered what could be the matter. Earl 
 went up close to the tree and he could see a 
 king bird's nest and about half of a snake 
 was hanging out of the nest. The snake had 
 climbed the tree to get the eggs or little 
 birds. The nest was about ten feet from the 
 ground and the tree was about three or four 
 inches in thickness. Hedge trees have sharp 
 thorns on them and I would not 'want to 
 climb one. We threw sticks at the snahe till 
 it fell down. After we had killed it we found
 
 pfl 
 
 H 
 
 71
 
 HIDALGO 73 
 
 that it had a young bird in its mouth. 
 Across the road from where we live a snake 
 crawled up into the lilac bushes and ate 
 the eggs out of a Catbird's nest. This nest 
 was about five feet from the ground. 
 
 A few days ago we went out beyond 
 Grandma's to see the dredge ditcher work. 
 We' tied Hidalgo to the fence and walked 
 down to the ditch. When we were coming 
 back to the surrey, Ruth got into a bumble- 
 bee 's nest. She fought the bumble-bees with 
 hands and feet. Some of the bumble-bees 
 stung her. Papa ran and picked her up. 
 She had two or three stings in one spot. 
 Papa thought he would try sucking the poi- 
 son out as they do with snake bites. It 
 worked all right and the pain left her right 
 away. Papa had a bird dog once that chased 
 bumble-bees. He said he thought the pup's 
 success would be his greatest misfortune. 
 If he had caught the bumble-bee it would 
 have stung him. Papa says, a great many 
 things are that way: we want something 
 very much and when we get it we are sorry 
 that we have it. 
 
 But I was going to tell you about the 
 dredge boat. It is a covered boat and has
 
 74 HIDALGO 
 
 an engine on it. It has a great big scoop in 
 front fastened to a long beam or arm which 
 makes it look like a dipper. They control 
 the scoop from the boat by chains and lev- 
 ers. I thought it looked like an elephant's 
 trunk. The scoop is brought back into the 
 bottom of the ditch close to the boat and 
 then it goes outward and upward and fills 
 itself with dirt; the scoop then swings 
 around to one side and by jerking a rope the 
 bottom is opened and the dirt falls out. The 
 bottom of the scoop closes as it goes back 
 after another load. The scoop holds about 
 a wagon load of dirt. In working a dredge 
 ditcher there must be plenty of water so that 
 the boat can float and so the dirt will slip 
 out of the scoop. They take the boat and en- 
 gine to pieces and haul them on wagons to 
 the upper end of the ditch they are to make 
 and work down stream so the water will fol- 
 low them. One set of men work the dredge 
 boat in the day time and another set at night. 
 Sometimes they work on Sundays too. I do 
 not think that is right. The dredge boat, you 
 see, gets no rest except when it breaks down, 
 which it does every little while. But they 
 have a blacksmith shop on the boat and can
 
 HIDALGO 75 
 
 mend anything that breaks. Many people 
 went out to see it work last summer. Some 
 of them looked prettier when they went than 
 when they came away, because they got 
 splashed when the dirt fell out of the scoop.
 
 77
 
 79
 
 81
 
 HIDALGO 83 
 
 PAET VIII. 
 
 The fall that Hidalgo was eight years old, 
 we drove to Wenona, Illinois, to visit 
 Mama's relatives and attend the family re- 
 union. While there we drove to Deer Park 
 and Starved Eock, which are about thirty 
 miles northeast of Wenona. On the way we 
 passed the old mill where Grandpa Kemp 
 used to take his wheat to get it ground. Deer 
 Park is a very pretty place. You drive to- 
 ward it right through the prairie until you 
 come to the timber: then you drive down 
 and down until you come to the edge of a 
 big ditch a canyon they call it. The sides 
 are rock, a hundred and fifty or two hundred 
 feet high. There is a bridge across it. In 
 the bottom of the canyon is a flowing well, 
 that throws water about fifty feet high. 
 They call it Deer Park because the first set- 
 tlers used to drive the deer into the canyon 
 and shut them in. They have a herd of deer 
 now in the park. 
 
 Starved Rock is on the south side of the
 
 84 HIDALGO 
 
 Illinois River between La Salle and Ottawa. 
 Three of its sides, the east, the west and the 
 north, are as steep as the sides of a house. 
 The top of the rock is one hundred and 
 twenty-five feet above the river. If you drop 
 a stone from the top of the north side it 
 would fall into the river. On the west you 
 look down upon a large hotel, on the east 
 side you look down over the tree tops. We 
 climbed up at the south side where it is not 
 so steep. The top of the rock is about ten 
 rods square. There is a story that a party of 
 Illinois Indians took refuge here from some 
 hostile Pottawatomies and the Pottawato- 
 mies guarded the south side so closely that 
 the Illinois Indians could not get down. 
 They ran out of food and when they let 
 buckets down on the north side to get water 
 the Indians below cut the ropes and kept the 
 buckets. The Indians on the Rock starved 
 or died of thirst. 
 
 They now, sometimes, get up an Indian 
 show, there, and act it all out. About one 
 hundred and fifty men dress like Indians 
 and part of them are chased up on to 
 Starved Rock by the others. Then there is 
 lots of yelling and shooting. I think that it 
 would make a pretty good show.
 
 85
 
 87
 
 89
 
 91
 
 93
 
 A Canyon near Starved Rock. 
 95
 
 A Canyon near the Rock. 
 97
 
 A Canyon near Starved Rock. 
 QQ
 
 HIDALGO 101 
 
 There are six or seven canyons near 
 Starved Rock that are very much like Deer 
 Park Canyon, and there is one high rock 
 they call the Pulpit. It looks like the pul- 
 pits you see in some churches, only it is a 
 great deal larger. There is a large hotel 
 and several cottages at Starved Rock. We 
 rented two* of the cottages. 
 
 We drove about two hundred and fifty 
 miles that trip. When we got back .home 
 Papa found that he had to go to Indiana 
 again. He said it would be nice to drive 
 Hidalgo and Star, and all of us go in the 
 surrey. Of course we all said that we would 
 go. We wrote to our friends at different 
 places telling them the time they might ex- 
 pect us. We found them all expecting us 
 and we made each place on time. We visited 
 for a few days with friends who live thirteen 
 miles northwest of La Fayette, Indiana. 
 On Thursday we drove to La Fayette. La 
 Fayette is "on the banks of the Wabash," 
 that they sing so much about, and is a beau- 
 tiful city. 
 
 The part of the city that is on the west 
 side of the Wabash River is called West La 
 Fayette. It is high and dry, a very pretty 
 place, with many nice houses. There is a
 
 102 HIDALGO 
 
 college there the Purdue University. They 
 have street cars running to "West La Fayette 
 and on north through the hills to the Sol- 
 diers' Home. I went to the Soldiers' Home 
 once on the electric car. It was a pleasant 
 ride and I would like to go again. 
 
 The Wabash River flows past the Sol- 
 diers' Home, but you cannot see the Sol- 
 diers' Home from the river road. You cross 
 " Tecumseh 's Trail" near the Soldiers' 
 Home. Tecumseh was the chief of the In- 
 dians who fought in the battle of Tippeca- 
 noe. The battle was fought November 7, 
 1811. The battle ground is seven miles 
 north of La Fayette. It was a fight between 
 the Indians and the white men. The In- 
 dians were led by ' ' The Prophet, ' ' a brother 
 of Tecumseh. Tecumseh was away from 
 home and the Indians went into the fight 
 without his knowing of it and against his 
 wishes. The white men were led by William 
 Henry Harrison, afterwards President of 
 the United States. 
 
 "The Prophet" told his people that the 
 white men's bullets would not hurt them. 
 -He did not tell them the truth for they were 
 defeated. The white men were camped for
 
 103
 
 HIDALGO 105 
 
 the night on a little hill. About 4 o'clock 
 in the morning, before it was light, the In- 
 dians tried to surprise the white men. The 
 soldiers had guards or pickets on the lookout 
 for the Indians. They woke the soldiers 
 and the battle began. ' ' The Prophet" stood 
 at one side, where the bullets would not hit 
 him, and sang war songs to encourage the 
 Indians to fight. The soldiers, after a time, 
 drove them back into the wet lands or marsh. 
 There were about nine hundred soldiers in 
 the fight and about the same number of In- 
 dians. The Indiana folks think that there is 
 not enough said in the histories about the 
 battle of Tippecanoe. They say the battle 
 was a turning point in the history of Indiana 
 and the country west of it. Indiana people 
 are proud of the men who fought in the bat- 
 tle of Tippecanoe and have named about 
 fifteen counties after men who were in the 
 battle. 
 
 The ground where the battle was fought is 
 owned by the United States Government. 
 They have built a high iron fence around it 
 and have a man to take care of the grounds. 
 We have a book called, ' ; The Battle of Tip 
 pecanoe, ' ' which we bought of the blind man
 
 106 HIDALGO 
 
 that wrote it. His name is Reed Beard. He 
 lives at La Fayette, Indiana. There is a 
 town on the Monon Railroad near the Tippe- 
 canoe battle ground called Battle Ground. 
 We have some little friends who live in Bat- 
 tle Ground. Their names are Beulah, Wil- 
 ber and Hubert Jackson. They made us a 
 visit not long ago and we had a good time 
 while they were here. 
 
 Friday morning we drove to Monon, 
 which is about thirty-five miles north of La 
 Fayette. It is prairie land until you get to 
 Reynolds. There we struck sand that tired 
 the horses out. It was as if they were walk- 
 ing in hay. But a rock road was being built 
 which would be very fine. The rock at Mo- 
 non is broken with what is called a stone 
 crusher. It is run with an engine and will 
 break large rocks into small pieces. The 
 crushed stone is carried up by an elevator 
 and dropped into wagons or railroad cars. 
 
 On Saturday we started for Winnemac, 
 which is thirty miles northeast of Monon. 
 We stopped on the way at one of the farms 
 to see about the sawing of some trees into 
 lumber, and had our dinners there. We 
 crossed the Tippecanoe River at a place
 
 107
 
 HIDALGO 109 
 
 where there was no bridge. People drive 
 through the water. They call a place of 
 that kind a ford. To get to the river we 
 drove down the steepest hill I ever knew 
 Papa to drive down, but there was deep 
 sand and that held the surrey back ; if it had 
 not been for the sand I do not see how the 
 horses could have held the surrey back. 
 
 Tippecanoe River is the prettiest river I 
 ever saw. It flows through a hilly or broken 
 country. There are many beautiful homes 
 along the banks with green fields and groves. 
 The timber is mostly hard wood. The river 
 winds in and out through these pretty scenes 
 till it joins the Wabash River above La Fay- 
 ette. There are many springs along the Tip- 
 pecanoe River which make the water very 
 clear. We could see the bottom anywhere. 
 We could see the fish away out in the mid- 
 dle of the river. Sometimes men get up into 
 the trees, on the banks of the river, and shoot 
 the fish. This is against the law. A man 
 could not shoot the fish while standing on 
 the banks because the bullets would skip 
 along on top of the water. Did you ever 
 throw a stone so it would skip along the top 
 of the water ? If they shoot from a tree and
 
 110 HIDALGO 
 
 the bullet strikes near a fish it will stun it so 
 that a man who is watching can run and 
 catch the fish. We followed along the river 
 bank about a quarter of a mile and drove 
 down a steep bank to the water. Star 
 thought he would not go into the water (he 
 was only three and a half years old), and 
 Hidalgo seemed afraid he would catch cold 
 if he got his feet w r et ; they had never been 
 in the water. Just then a man who had 
 waded the river helped us by leading Star 
 into the water. After that they were not 
 afraid. 
 
 We got to Winnemac in time for supper ; 
 when we make a long drive we watch for 
 dinner and supper and two or three lunches 
 besides, for it makes one hungry to travel 
 that way. 
 
 Winnemac is on the west side of the Tip- 
 pecanoe River and is a very pretty place. 
 That part of Indiana has many little towns 
 with now and then a nice big town. They 
 have a flowing well down by the river. 
 Some folks think that the water is as good 
 for them as medicine arid they say that they 
 like to drink it. I guess that there is some 
 doubt about that, for the water smells like 
 bad eggs.
 
 o 
 
 I'll
 
 HIDALGO 113 
 
 Monday morning we started back to Mo- 
 non. When we came to the ford on the Tip- 
 pecanoe River, we children wanted to wade 
 across it. So we took off most of our clothes 
 and Papa took off his shoes and stockings 
 and rolled up his pantaloons we took hold 
 of hands as if we were going to "crack the 
 whip" and waded in. We children could 
 walk over the stones better than Papa be- 
 cause we were used to going bare-footed. 
 The river was quite wide but the water was 
 not more than two feet deep. Oh! but that 
 was a pretty river, and it was fun to wade 
 through it. Mama thought she would rather 
 drive, so we left her in the surrey. We 
 -stopped for dinner just east of Monon, 
 where they had promised to board us. We 
 put our team in the barn on one of 
 Grandpa's farms, which is a little nearer 
 town and back from the gravel road about a 
 quarter of a mile. The first night we were 
 there one of the men at the farm, where the 
 horses were kept, was sick and came down 
 stairs. Before going back to bed he opened 
 the door and looked out. Just then he heard 
 horses running. He went to see what was 
 the matter, and found Hidalgo and Star 
 running around with their halter straps
 
 114 HIDALGO 
 
 dragging. He found the barn door shut and 
 made up his mind that horse thieves had 
 been there and had been frightened away. 
 They are used to horse thieves around there. 
 They caught the horses and put them back 
 in the barn and nailed the door shut. Then 
 they kept watch until morning. 
 
 The next day when they told us about it, 
 Papa brought the horses over to where we 
 were boarding. He slept with one eye open 
 that night. He thought the horse thieves 
 might come back again. 
 
 About 2 o'clock the next morning, just 
 before the moon went down, we heard the 
 dogs at our house barking and the dog at 
 the farm where our horses had been the 
 night before, was barking too. 
 
 Papa called to the man that we were 
 boarding with and told him he thought the 
 horse thieves had come and to get him the 
 gun. I was wide awake at once and told 
 them that I wanted to see the horse thieves 
 too. 
 
 We looked out of the window and saw a 
 man on horseback stop in front of the house. 
 We thought sure that he was waiting for an- 
 other man to bring out our horses. Papa
 
 115
 
 HIDALGO 117 
 
 hurried and just as lie opened the door the 
 man started his horse into a gallop. 
 
 We went to the barn and found our horses 
 were all right. We then went to another 
 house a little nearer town and told the man 
 to see if his horse had been stolen. The man 
 said that his horse was there and that he 
 had watched the man on horseback, while 
 he was in front of his house, and that he 
 seemed to be waiting for some one to come 
 from where our horses had been the night 
 before. After awhile one of the girls where 
 we were staying heard some one back in the 
 field make a signal whistle; she thought he 
 was calling the man Papa had seen. We 
 locked our stable door and the next day we- 
 took our horses to the livery stable for 
 safety. 
 
 That day a man came along on horseback 
 following horse thieves. Papa told him what 
 kind of horse the man had who was there in 
 the night, and how its feet sounded when it 
 galloped: something like "tick tackle, tick 
 tackle." "Yes," said the man, "that was 
 my horse.- He could take that gait and keep 
 it all day." 
 
 The man went home and got a team and
 
 118 HIDALGO 
 
 buggy, and lie and a man who knew the road 
 that the horse thieves traveled, started in the 
 evening towards Winnemac. They drove 
 about twenty miles and one of their horses 
 got sick ; and then they drove the twenty 
 miles back and the horse died. What do you 
 think of that way of treating a sick horse? 
 
 The man never found his stolen horse but 
 they have broken up that band of horse 
 thieves. They had a regular road with 
 friends along it, I am glad they did not get 
 Hidalgo and Star. 
 
 The next Saturday we went back to Win- 
 nemac; we forded the Tippecanoe Kiver 
 again and when we came to the bridge across 
 the Tippecanoe Eiver south of Winnemac, 
 we found some men putting a floor on the 
 bridge. They had taken up all the old floor 
 and did not have enough lumber for the new 
 one and about sixteen feet of the bridge was 
 open. Papa carried our satchels and wraps 
 and Ruth and Wendell over, but I took hold 
 of the side rails and walked across the iron 
 pieces that the floor is laid on. And then I 
 went back to drive through the river with 
 Papa. Mama was afraid for me to crawl 
 across the hole in the bridge alone, because
 
 119
 
 HIDALGO 121 
 
 the bridge was so high and the water so 
 deep. But I always could climb almost any- 
 where. 
 
 Last summer, though, I got a fall ; I tried 
 to go across from the roof of our carriage 
 porch to the porch roof, and I overbalanced 
 and had to jump. It was fifteen and one 
 half feet to the side walk. I struck on my 
 feet and rolled over on the gravel road. I 
 thought my fingers and my legs were broken, 
 but they were not. I had to use crutches for 
 a long time, as it jammed my ankle so that 
 it was black and blue. 
 
 Well, Papa and I drove down a sideling 
 bank to the water and I thought the surrey 
 would turn over before we got down that 
 bank, but it didn't. Then we drove into 
 the river, that looked as if it was a foot 
 deep, from the bridge, because the water 
 was so clear, and it was so deep that it 
 frightened the horses, and it frightened me 
 a little, too. I kept crawling up till I had 
 my feet on the seat, and the water nearly 
 got me there, for it came up to the cushions. 
 
 The next Monday morning we got up 
 early and had the horses fed and hitched 
 before breakfast, and while we were eating
 
 122 HIDALGO 
 
 breakfast it began to rain, so we had them 
 unhitched. Tuesday morning we got up 
 early again and hitched up before break- 
 fast, and while we were eating breakfast it 
 began to rain as it had Monday morning, 
 Our friends wanted us to stay, but we finally 
 put the side curtains on the surrey and 
 started. We had to carry our things over 
 the bridge again and ford the river. The 
 bank of the river on the side where we went 
 down was so steep that it looked as if the 
 surrey would upset on top of the horses. 
 
 We had not gone very far until it cleared 
 up, and it was nice for a while. But by 
 and by it rained very hard, and we drove 
 into a big barn. We thought that we would 
 get to Monticello for dinner, but as it was 
 then about dinner time we asked the lady 
 at the house to get some dinner for us, and 
 we had a good dinner there. After a while 
 it cleared up and we started again. Just 
 before we came to Monticello we saw about 
 a dozen squirrels in the trees near a house. 
 I guess the man must have watched so that 
 no one would shoot any of them. 
 
 Monticello is the county seat of White 
 County, Indiana. You would have to drive
 
 PQ 
 
 123
 
 HIDALGO 125 
 
 all day to get across White County, it is 
 such a large county. The Tippecanoe 
 River runs along the east side of Monticello, 
 which is a beautiful little city with paved 
 streets and pleasant homes. As we came 
 through Brookston we saw, in a pasture, two 
 pet deer and some "tame" wild geese. We 
 drove fifty-eight miles that day to get back 
 to our stopping place northwest of La Fay- 
 ette. We stayed about a week with our 
 friends at that place, and Papa attended to 
 some business. 
 
 Hidalgo is just like a Gipsy horse. Wher- 
 ever we visited we would let him run loose on 
 the road and eat grass and rest, and have a 
 good time. But Star came near giving us 
 trouble. He was out with Hi and he made 
 a break for home. The man at the next 
 house caught him. 
 
 When we started for home the lady gave 
 me some guinea eggs and told me to put 
 them under a setting hen when I got home. 
 AVe had started and were down the road a 
 little way when we saw a guinea, and Papa 
 always laughs at me because I said, ' ' Good 
 bye, old guinea hen ; thank you for the 
 guinea eggs."
 
 126 HIDALGO 
 
 some shells and a mess and no eggs. We 
 stayed all night with our friends at Talbot, 
 Indiana, that night. Talbot is about four 
 miles east of the Illinois line and is thirty- 
 five miles east of Paxton, so it was not much 
 of a drive to get home the next day. When 
 we came to where we crossed over into 
 Illinois, Papa said, "Look out, now, for a 
 bump ; we are going to cross the state line. ' ' 
 We said that we did not see the line. Then 
 Papa told us that we could not see the line, 
 that it was just the place where Indiana quit 
 and Illinois began. It was hard for us to 
 understand about states, counties, townships 
 and sections, but Papa can make anything 
 pretty plain to us. He said that he would 
 turn it around for us and begin with a farm, 
 then tell us about sections, townships, coun- 
 ties and states. He asked us first, "Do you 
 see that house and barn over there?" We 
 told him that we did. He said, "A farmer 
 lives there; he has fields of corn, of oats 
 and hay, and pastures for his cattle, horses, 
 sheep and hogs. That is a farm. Then," 
 he said, "you know that we cross a road 
 every mile. A piece of land that has a road 
 on each side of it is a section of land, and
 
 This is Where I got a Fall. 
 127
 
 HIDALGO 129 
 
 there are 640 acres of land in a section." 
 We did not find a road on every side of a 
 section in Indiana, though, because they 
 made the roads before the land was meas- 
 ured into sections. 
 
 Then he told us that it takes thirty-six 
 sections to make a township; thirty-six 
 sections in a square makes a township six 
 miles each way. They give each township 
 a name, but sometimes they take more than 
 one township and give it a name. They 
 call a township that has a name a town. The 
 town of Fatten, that we live in, has one 
 township and part of another in it. It is 
 six miles one way and ten miles the other. 
 The people in a town vote for men to be 
 the officers of the town. The men who are 
 elected attend to the business of the town, 
 take care of the roads and attend to build- 
 ing the bridges arid such things. Then 
 there are a number of townships in a 
 county. The people living in a county 
 elect men to attend to the business of 
 the county. There are a great many 
 counties in a state. There is no reg- 
 ular number of townships in a county and 
 no regular number of counties in a state.
 
 130 HIDALGO 
 
 Some counties and some states are larger 
 than others. The people living in a state 
 elect their state officers, and laws are made 
 by men who are elected for that purpose. 
 There are forty-five states now, and all the 
 states together have business that they are 
 all interested in, so we have the United 
 States of America, and there are officers 
 elected by each state who join together and 
 make laws for the United States. The 
 United States government can do business 
 with other countries just as if it was only 
 one state. When we got home Papa said 
 that the team had traveled 545 miles on that 
 trip through Indiana. 
 
 I have been to Indiana so many times that 
 I know a good many people there. There 
 is one place in Indiana that I would rather 
 visit than 'most any other, and that is at 
 Round Grove, which is northwest of La 
 Fayette. We always stay at Mr. Ford's 
 when we visit that place. Mr. Demmerle, 
 who lives there, has tame rabbits of all 
 colors and fan-tailed pigeons and common 
 pigeons, and two or three dogs. I go to 
 Mr. Demmerle 's and stay in the field with 
 him nearly all day. He knows a great deal 
 about animals and birds.
 
 HIDALGO 131 
 
 Papa and I were in Indiana April 10th. 
 We saw a gray ground squirrel that some 
 boys had found while digging in the sand. 
 This ground squirrel was fast asleep and 
 could not be wakened. I did not know that 
 ground squirrels hibernated as bears do 
 until I saw this one. He was rolled up so 
 nicely you could have played ball with him. 
 The boys were going to keep him until he 
 woke up and then try to tame him. 
 
 Papa says the reason ground squirrels 
 are so bright and lively in the summer is 
 because they have had plenty of sleep, and 
 that when we children get plenty of sleep 
 we are brighter and better natured. I 
 think I can get along, though, without 
 sleeping all winter as bears and squir- 
 rels do. 
 
 Ruth and I often go to Indiana with Papa, 
 but Wendell has not been with him very 
 much. He would a little rather stay with 
 his Mama. He is beginning to take his turn 
 now, though. One time Ruth went with 
 Papa to La Fayette, and when they started 
 out to the farms northwest of La Fayette 
 it was so late and the roads were so muddy 
 that it got very dark before they got to 
 their stopping place. It was so dark they
 
 132 HIDALGO 
 
 could not see the horse they were driving, 
 but Ruth did not make any fuss. She only 
 said, "I would not have come with you, 
 but in the morning I would have called 
 you." She always wants Papa the first 
 thing when she wakes up in the morning. 
 They got there all right, but there was one 
 little bridge that Papa had worried about, 
 for it was very narrow and had no railing. 
 
 Last spring Papa and I went to Monon, 
 Indiana, and while we were there some men 
 were going to fish with a seine ; so we 
 stayed over and went with them. We went 
 away up the Monon River to where the 
 dredge ditch joins it. The Monon is only a 
 small river. 
 
 "We fished most of the time in the river 
 and that was where we had the best luck. 
 When we fished in the dredge ditch our 
 seine caught on rocks or something every 
 little while and the men would have to 
 dive down and loosen it. We caught sticks 
 and stones and barb wire that day, and we 
 caught a good many fish and about twenty 
 soft-shelled turtles. When the men caught 
 turtles they would cut holes in the edges 
 of their shells and string them on strings.
 
 HIDALGO 133 
 
 The turtle that was smart enough to catcli 
 a man would pretty nearly get even with 
 that man, and you ought to have heard him 
 yell. The man yelled and the turtle pinched. 
 I was in the water all day. The men were 
 afraid that I would get drowned, but I 
 stayed near Papa and kept hold of the pull- 
 ing ropes, and when it was too deep I would 
 cling to the ropes. When we got through 
 fishing they made eleven piles of fish as even 
 as they could. Then one man went behind 
 a tree and the man with the fish would lay 
 his hands on a pile of fish and say, "Who 
 gets these fish?" And the man behind 
 the tree would name some one. They kept 
 on that way until all- had some fish. We 
 gave our fish to the man we were staying! 
 with. The other men took the turtles and 
 they were going to have a turtle soup and 
 fish dinner at the hotel the next day, but we 
 could not stay to help them eat it. 
 
 We fished so late that we missed the 
 evening train, so we waited for the eleven 
 o'clock train, which was late, and we did 
 not get to La Fayette till one o'clock. Papa 
 told the hotel clerk to call us in time for the 
 train that goes north at six o'clock, and we
 
 134 HIDALGO 
 
 went back to Brookston on that train. The 
 train we came down on in the night was a 
 fast train and did not stop at Brookston. 
 Papa was pretty tired for a few days, but it 
 did not hurt me any. I got more sleep than 
 he did, though, for lie let me sleep at Monon 
 and carried me into the train. After we 
 got home the skin peeled off of Papa's 
 neck and shoulders and off my neck and 
 back, because we got sunburned while fish- 
 ing. I had my underclothing on, but the 
 sun blistered in spite of that. Mama was 
 not very sorry for us, because we had stayed 
 to go fishing and did not get home as soon 
 as she expected us.
 
 HIDALGO 135 
 
 PART IX. 
 
 We did not go on any long trips in the 
 surrey the year that Hidalgo was nine years 
 old, because we were building our house, and 
 that took all summer. But Papa takes care 
 of a good many farms, and so we drive a 
 great deal every summer. 
 
 Grandpa drives Hi a good deal in the 
 summer time around town and in the coun- 
 try. He does not play in harness with 
 Grandpa as he does with other people when 
 they drive him. Sometimes he forgets, 
 though ; when a big dog runs at him he will 
 try to get a kick at the dog or try to outrun 
 him. 
 
 Grandpa says that he and Hidalgo are 
 good friends and that Hi will not be very 
 bad with him. One time Grandpa was driv- 
 ing Hi down the only steep hill we have 
 around here, and something about the har- 
 ness broke and let the shafts come down on 
 to the ground. Hidalgo stopped the buggy 
 by letting it run up against him. Grandpa
 
 136 HIDALGO 
 
 thought that if it had been any other horse 
 he might have been thrown out and hurt or 
 killed. 
 
 I have two bad things to tell about Hi- 
 dalgo. These happened last winter. Mama 
 and a lady had some errands to do, so they 
 took Hi and the cutter. They took a boy 
 to drive, so they would not have to tie him 
 up every time they went into a house. When 
 they were driving up to a house where Hi 
 was acquainted he broke into a run, and 
 the boy could not hold him. Mama took the 
 lines and stopped him. The boy had had 
 enough driving and would not drive any 
 more. Papa said that he saw Hidalgo was 
 not ] (leased with the hoy's driving when 
 they started. Hidalgo has always been al- 
 lowed to do as he pleased because he pleased 
 to do right. And now, since he is older, he 
 will not al-low strangers to boss him, espe- 
 cially boys. 
 
 The other bad thing that Hidalgo did was 
 when Grandpa and Uncle Dave were driving 
 him to the sleigh. They were going pretty 
 fast and the shafts came loose from the 
 sleigh. Hidalgo went on with the shafts 
 and the sleigh upset and pitched Grandpa
 
 HIDALGO 137 
 
 over Uncle Dave. Grandpa lit on his nose 
 on the ice. They were not hurt much. Hi 
 ran down to a barn where there were some 
 horses. Uncle Dave got him and tied the 
 shafts on with a strap and brought the sleigh 
 home. I teased Uncle Dave because he got 
 upset, for he is a good driver. But when 
 the shafts come off the driver gets left.
 
 138 HIDALGO 
 
 PART X. 
 
 We never shot a gun out of the buggy, 
 with Hidalgo, until the summer he was ten 
 years old. He does not like it very well and 
 seems to say: "My! Oh, I don't like that 
 awful noise right behind me ; but although 
 it makes me jump I will stand it if you 
 think it is right." Papa says he would not 
 let anyone else have him to go hunting with, 
 for Hi would not mind another person and 
 might make trouble. 
 
 Papa can shoot quails or chickens that 
 fly over or get up along the road while the 
 horse is trotting. His gun is a heavy, dou- 
 ble-barreled, No. 10, Fox gun. It breaks 
 or opens at the side. It is too heavy for me 
 to shoot, but he can handle it easily and do 
 a great deal of fancy shooting with it. 
 
 Papa bought me a single-barrel, breech- 
 loading gun last fall. It is a self-ejector 
 and No. 12 gauge. He had them cut 
 the barrel off so as to make it twenty- 
 seven inches long, and they cut an inch and
 
 HIDALGO 139 
 
 a half off of the stock, so that I could han- 
 dle it. The first time I shot it 1 had in a big 
 load and It knocked me flat. Then I tried 
 a smaller load and shot at a snipe. Two 
 fell that time, the snipe and myself. I use 
 still smaller loads now and they are all 
 right ; I have them load my shells with two 
 drachms of powder. I can't quite swing 
 the gun to shoot on the wing, but I think 
 I can handle it all right next summer. 
 
 Sometimes when Papa and I go to the 
 farms we shoot quails and rabbits. One 
 trip Papa shot eight quails out of nine shots. 
 I shot one quail "straight." His quails 
 were flying, though, and my quail was in 
 "the hedge. I only go hunting when Papa 
 goes. He says one boy at a time is enough 
 for hunting, and he does not want me to go 
 with other boys, because one of us might 
 shoot the other. He does not like to see 
 boys get guns because they start out and 
 kill whatever they see. He says he will al- 
 ways be sorry because, when a boy, he shot 
 a bird while it was sitting on its nest. 
 
 I want to tell you how Papa shot the 
 prairie chickens. We were at one of the 
 farms, and just about dark the man said to
 
 140 HIDALGO 
 
 me, "There are some prairie chickens over 
 in the pasture." He counted five. I told 
 Papa and we took our guns and sneaked 
 down along the hedge until we got close 
 enough. Papa whispered for me to take 
 the one standing up and he would take the 
 other one. I said, "I can't get my gun up 
 high enough to shoot over the hedge, and I 
 can't shoot through it, and I can't shoot 
 anyway, for I tremble so. ' ' He said : l ' Oh, 
 shoot; you've got the buck ague." (That 
 is what they call it when a fellow tries to 
 shoot at a deer and cannot, because he is 
 so excited). But I would not shoot and he 
 went a little further, where he could get 
 the two he saw in line, and "Bang!" went 
 his gun, and he said : ' ' Well, now, Howard, 
 what do you think; they are only old 
 dry bunches of thistles." I said: "It's a 
 good thing I didn't shoot, or I would have 
 wasted my load. ' ' We looked at the thistles 
 in daytime and they looked like prairie 
 chickens even in daylight. 
 
 The snipe and the duck will soon be here, 
 and I expect to shoot some this spring. We 
 have jack snipe, sand snipe, plover, yellow- 
 legged snipe and some other kinds. I am
 
 HIDALGO 141 
 
 afraid it will be -some time before I can 
 shoot a jack snipe, for they hide so they 
 cannot be seen until they fly. When they 
 fly they make such a crooked path that the 
 shot cannot follow them ; anyway they are 
 hard to hit. 
 
 One day Papa was out at one of the farms 
 helping to survey for a tile ditch. Mr. John- 
 son was going to help, and his little boy, 
 Willie, five years old, wanted to go along. 
 Papa said to let him go, as he had rubber 
 boots on. So he went down in the field with 
 the men. They let him carry the back end 
 of the chain they measured with, and his 
 father carried the front end of the chain and 
 drove stakes every four rods. Papa helped 
 the surveyor and he carried his gun with 
 him because there were a good many ducks 
 flying. Papa shot at some ducks as they 
 flew over. When he caught up with Willie 
 he said to Papa, "Did you shoot any?" 
 Papa told him that he did not. The little 
 boy said, "That's a funny gun." Papa 
 said, "They generally blame me when I 
 miss anything, instead of the gun." Papa 
 gave Willie twenty-five cents and told him 
 to remember that that was the first money
 
 142 HIDALGO 
 
 he had ever earned. He did his part as well 
 as a man could have done it. 
 
 When Willie was only a little over four 
 years old he tried to snap the neck-yoke strap 
 to the horses' harness when they were hitch- 
 ing them to the wagon. He could not reach 
 high enough. He said, "Ain't it strange 
 that I don't get big any faster?" And he 
 was ready to cry about it. 
 
 I will tell you about another time we 
 were out at a farm to see about fixing a 
 windmill that was out of order. They use 
 windmills here to pump water out of the 
 deep wells. We were late and the lady hur- 
 ried up supper for us. It was warm 
 weather, so she set the table out in the shade 
 of the trees. There was a nice, fresh breeze 
 out there. The lady had just taken some 
 bread from the oven, so w 7 e had fresh bread. 
 The butter was just out of the churn, and so 
 we had fresh butter. They had been butch- 
 ering, and we had fresh meat, and just be- 
 fore supper she had sent the children to 
 dig some potatoes, so we had fresh potatoes; 
 and as we were taking our places at the table 
 the lady said to the girls: "There is no 
 milk for the coffee ; run, quick, one of you
 
 143
 
 HIDALGO 145 
 
 girls, and milk the cow ; don 't wait to milk 
 all; bring what we need," and so we had 
 fresh milk. You don't get things as fresh 
 as that in Chicago, do you? 
 
 The country is the place to get good things 
 to eat. When I go to Grandma's and stay 
 a week I fatten right up. Threshing time is 
 the best. There are about twenty-five men 
 needed to help with the threshing, and they 
 always have extra good things to eat then. 
 Thanksgiving dinner is nowhere. Most 
 boys like to have the threshers come, but I 
 know some boys who were talking about 
 threshing, and one of them said, "I wish 
 the threshers would come." The other 
 said, "I don't, because we would have to 
 wait." 
 
 When the first snow fell last fall Papa 
 said for all to get sleds and have a ride. 
 Thirteen children tried to get on five sleds. 
 Two of the largest sleds were home-made. 
 Papa hitched Hidalgo to the sleds. The 
 thirteenth boy couldn't stay on, so Papa 
 put him on Hi 's back ; but Hi said, ; ' Thir- 
 teen is an unlucky number, ' ' and kicked up, 
 so the boy had to hang on to the sleds. I 
 think the crupper hurt Hi's tail when the 
 boy was on his back.
 
 146 HIDALGO 
 
 We have lots of fun sleigh riding with 
 Hidalgo. The boys try to catch on to the 
 cutter, but it is a pretty smart boy wlio 
 catches us. One time Mama was driving 
 Hidalgo to the cutter and there was a boy 
 waiting on the farther sidewalk on a cross 
 street. Hidalgo saw that he could not dodge 
 past the boy because the road was narrow, 
 so he turned up a cross street so quickly 
 that he pretty nearly upset the sleigh. The 
 boy did not get on. 
 
 One time Hidalgo was loose about the 
 barn. He made a great big, stiff-legged 
 jump. He whirled around as he jumped 
 and fell flat. I guess that he didn't want 
 us to know that he fell while he was trying 
 to be funny, for he went right to rolling 
 just as if he had lain down on purpose to 
 roll. 
 
 For two or three days we have been mark- 
 ing, as they do at school, for our behavior 
 at the table. We mark Papa and Mama, 
 too. When we get ten good marks we get 
 a red star, and when we get ten red stars 
 we get some book that we want. Papa thinks 
 this plan works well. He does not get any 
 bad marks, though, for if he spills his coffee 
 or puts his elbows on the table, or is cross,
 
 a 
 
 147
 
 HIDALGO 149 
 
 Ruth gives him a good mark, saying, ' ' This 
 is only the first time, and the first time does 
 not count." 
 
 Papa thinks there ought not to be rules 
 for little folks and none for big folks. A 
 long time ago Mama said that we children 
 could not have coffee except at breakfast. 
 She said it was not good for us. We said, 
 "Papa has it," and Papa said, "That is 
 right ; if it is not good for you it is not good 
 for me, and you can have coffee when I 
 have it." So he quit using coffee except at 
 breakfast, and if he has it at any other meal 
 we can have it if we want it. 
 
 One time there was a man, who taught 
 school here, whipped some boys for smok- 
 ing, and while he was whipping them he 
 was smoking a cigar. Another man who 
 lives here told his boy that he would whip 
 him if he caught him swearing again ; and 
 while he was scolding the boy he was swear- 
 ing himself. I suspect the boy swore some 
 more when he got out back of the barn. 
 
 One day Papa said to us, "Did you see 
 that dead cat on the road as you came 
 home?" We said, "Yes." "Well," he 
 said, "I would not carrv that old dead cat
 
 1.50 HIDALGO 
 
 home; of course you could if you wanted 
 to." We said that we would not touch the 
 old, dirty thing. Then he said, "You hear 
 bad words at school and on the street, don't 
 you?" We said, "Yes." Then he told us 
 not to bring any of those bad words home; 
 that, of course, we could, if we wanted to, 
 and he could not help it. He said that it 
 was not smart to use bad words ; that any- 
 body could, if they wanted to. He said the 
 same thing about smoking and chewing to- 
 bacco. Some boys think it is smart to 
 smoke, although it makes them sick. 
 
 Papa never punishes us for doing any- 
 thing that we do not know is wrong. If we 
 say a bad word, that we do not know is 
 wrong, he is sorry. We are sorry, too. If 
 he asks us if we did something that was 
 wrong, and we say, "Yes," he does not 
 punish us, when he finds out in that way. 
 He says the law will not allow the court to 
 make a man tell on himself, and that some 
 papas say, "Did you do that?" and if the 
 hoy says, "Yes," he gets a whipping; and 
 if he says, "No," he gets out of it. So he 
 learns to lie to save his back. When we 
 say a thing Papa takes our word for it, and
 
 HIDALGO 151 
 
 will not let any person question our word. 
 He says that it is our business to tell the 
 truth. Papa can find out about anything 
 pretty easily, though. He asks a few ques- 
 tions, and the first thing we know he knows 
 all about it. 
 
 I cannot remember when Papa or Mama 
 have whipped any of us children. We need 
 it bad enough sometimes, and sometimes, 
 when I am bad, I wish they would whip me, 
 I feel so cross and mean. They say it would 
 be much easier to whip than not to whip, 
 and say it is much harder to be patient with 
 us. One gets sleepy, tired or cross, and acts 
 mean and doesn't know why. As big as I 
 am, I'll sit and cry about something that 
 can't be helped and that isn't the reason 
 I am crying at all I just feel cross and 
 mean and need a good cry. 
 
 AVhen,Mama was a little girl she lived on 
 a farm. Her mama told her that she must 
 do a certain part of the work each day. In 
 the summer time, when the teams were at 
 work in the field, Mama would finish her part 
 of getting things ready for dinner ; then she 
 could go to the field and ride one of the 
 horses to the barn. She says that she en-
 
 152 HIDALGO 
 
 joyed the ride better because she had earned 
 it by first doing her work. 
 
 Mama has given us children certain work 
 to do each day. We boys are to pump cis- 
 tern water into the tank in the attic. There 
 is a pump in the basement and the water 
 is forced up through an iron pipe. I am 
 to pump one hundred strokes and Wendell 
 is to pump fifty strokes. Ruth is to wipe 
 the dishes. 
 
 We have other work to do, but this is to 
 be our regular work. Mama will not allow 
 us boys to pump two or three hundred 
 strokes one day and none the next. She 
 wants us to get into the habit of working.
 
 HIDALGO 153 
 
 PART XI. 
 
 This is April 21st. Hidalgo is eleven 
 years old to-day. I will tell you what we 
 have been doing lately. Papa said that we 
 needed a room of some kind for our guns 
 and fishing tackle, and we thought that the 
 attic would be a good place. So we began 
 to plan it. Finally we thought a log cabin 
 in the attic would be the best thing. We 
 have been working at it for a month or so, 
 just at odd times and in the evenings. Papa 
 said logs would be too heavy, and he ordered 
 slabs from the sawmill. Slabs are the first 
 and last part of the logs that are cut when 
 they are sawing logs into boards or lumber. 
 Slabs have the bark on them. They are 
 from six inches to fourteen inches wide, and 
 in the thickest place about four inches 
 through. We put up some two-by-four 
 pieces from the floor to the roof. We nailed 
 the slabs to the pieces on the inside, and 
 some to match them on the outside. Papa 
 fixed them so that they do not show that 
 they are slabs instead of logs.
 
 154 HIDALGO 
 
 We left a crack between the slabs and 
 nailed slats back of the cracks, and when 
 the slabs get dry we will "chink" the cracks 
 with plaster. We have old windows that 
 have small panes of glass, heavy shutters 
 for the windows and a strong door, so the 
 Indians cannot get in. On the outside we 
 will only fix it to look like a log cabin on 
 two sides. On the inside no one can tell 
 but that it is a real log cabin, for the roof 
 of the house is the roof of the cabin. We 
 will leave it so the rafters will show. The 
 big room of the cabin is thirteen by twenty 
 feet, and it has an addition on one side about 
 ten by ten feet. It is all in one room now, 
 but we will hang up some curtains between 
 the rooms. There is an outside window 
 in the little room and an outside window 
 high up in the big room, and we are putting 
 in two windows and a door that open into 
 the attic. Our house has but one large chim- 
 ney. The chimney is at the end of the big 
 room in the log cabin. We are going to 
 have an old-fashioned fireplace. We have 
 some hickory wood drying to burn next win- 
 ter. 
 
 We have an old-fashioned bed, table and
 
 HIDALGO 155 
 
 chairs. We went to the gun shop and got 
 an old flint-lock musket, a set trigger rifle 
 and an old Colt's revolver that had to be 
 loaded with powder, ball and cap. We also 
 got four little pistols. The man gave us two 
 gourds, one for a dipper and one to keep 
 soft soap in. Since people have found out 
 that we want old things for our cabin they 
 are watching for things for us. One man, 
 gave us the barrel of a flint-lock horse pistol. 
 It was found near town. It is so badly 
 rusted it looks very old. It may be more 
 than a hundred years old. A man in Texas 
 said he was going to send us a very old 
 gun. We do not know him, but when Uncle 
 Tom told him what we were doing he said 
 he would give us his old gun. We can get 
 an old ox yoke and we will hang that up on 
 the outside of the cabin. 
 
 We will hang the guns and other things 
 up on the walls, and when we go deer hunt- 
 ing we will try to get some deer horns and 
 hides. We boys will sleep up there a great 
 many times, and when you come to see us 
 you can sleep up there if you want to. Papa 
 has done every bit of the work so far, except 
 what we boys helped. He calls it ' ' pleasure
 
 156 HIDALGO 
 
 work." There are electric lights in the 
 attic. The lights are on long wires and can 
 be carried where we need them. We will 
 have to use candles in the cabin when we 
 get it finished. 
 
 We can have fun up there. It will be 
 nearly like camping out. We have camped 
 out several times since I was big enough to 
 remember. One day last fall Papa had busi- 
 ness to attend to out in the country about 
 twelve miles. He said he wanted to show 
 us folks how he could cook out of doors. So 
 we hitched Hidalgo to the trap and took 
 the gun and Fannie (our hunting dog) 
 along, so we could get some game to cook. 
 Papa put into a box a kettle and a coffee 
 pot, bread, butter, potatoes, onions, salt, 
 pepper, coffee, knives, forks and spoons. He 
 also took an ax. 
 
 We started about eight o'clock in the 
 morning, and when we got about five miles 
 from town a flock of prairie chickens flew 
 up from beside the road. They lit over in 
 the oat stubble. Papa took the gun and dog 
 and followed them, and in about twenty min- 
 utes he had shot three of the young prairie 
 chickens. They were pretty nearly full 
 grown.
 
 157
 
 HIDALGO 159 
 
 We stopped in the timber for dinner. We 
 unhitched Hidalgo, watered him and turned 
 him loose to eat his oats and what grass he 
 wanted. We had brought a bucket of good 
 water from the last house we passed, to use 
 for dressing the birds, and to cook with. 
 Papa was cook that day. He dressed the 
 game and peeled and washed the potatoes 
 and onions. After he had made the fire he 
 cut a green stick on which to hang the kettle, 
 and put one end of it on a stump and the 
 other on a forked stick stuck into the 
 ground. When the game and potatoes and 
 onions were about done he cut a loaf of 
 bread in two and laid it on top of the meat 
 in the kettle. Then he set the coffee pot on 
 the red coals and had everything ready for 
 dinner at the same time. Mama thought it 
 was the finest dinner she ever ate, and we 
 children ate so much we did not feel good 
 for a little while. There was plenty left for 
 the dog, too. 
 
 Wendell is too young to go to school, so 
 he is with Papa at the office at least half of 
 the time. He does not make any trouble 
 and he does a great many errands. One 
 evening they came home late for supper, and 
 when they were eating Wendell took a piece
 
 160 HIDALGO 
 
 of cake that had plenty of frosting on it and 
 said: "Papa, will you do something for 
 me!" Papa said: "Maybe so; what is 
 it ? " Papa is always afraid to promise too 
 sure with Wendell. Wendell said : ' ' When 
 I eat this frosting off, will you eat the 
 cake ! ' ' Mama will not let him eat the frost- 
 ing and leave the cake. Papa would not 
 agree to that bargain, so Wendell had to 
 eat the cake, too. 
 
 What do you think ! We have had a lot 
 of real Indians in our back yard. You will 
 not believe it until I tell you how it hap- 
 pened. Pawnee Bill's Wild West Show 
 had their tents at the edge of the town west 
 of our house. There was a Woodman 's pic- 
 nic the same day, so the Wild West Show 
 did not have their parade until after the 
 Woodman parade. . The Indians and cow- 
 boys and Indian girls and lady riders sat 
 on their horses near our house while the 
 Woodman parade was going on. A horse 
 got frightened and upset the buggy and 
 threw the folks out. It did not hurt them 
 very much, but the horse ran away and into 
 our back yard. The cowboys and Indians 
 caught up their lassoes, which hung on their
 
 161
 
 HIDALGO 163 
 
 saddles, and they surrounded our lot quicker 
 than I can tell it. They caught the horse 
 right beside our plum trees. Then the ripe 
 plums suffered. The Indians picked some 
 and took them out to the girls. We did not 
 care for their taking the plums. The cow- 
 boys caught another runaway horse with 
 their lassoes that day. 
 
 Papa is trying to get us boys to form a 
 club to protect the birds. We have all begun 
 to collect specimens of birds' eggs, and he 
 does not like it. He has written something 
 for us to sign. It is all right, but it may 
 spoil our egg collections. We have -a good 
 many birds at our end of town, for there are 
 plenty of big trees. We heard a whip-poor- 
 will one evening last spring. Papa said it 
 was only the second one he had heard in this 
 part of the country. 
 
 Here is a copy of what Papa wrote for 
 us to sign. I do not know whether all the 
 boys will sign it or not, for we have been 
 robbing birds' nests to get the eggs for our 
 collections, and some of the boys have air 
 guns and "shooters," and they kill a good 
 many birds. Wendell and I are willing to 
 sign it. They call our end of town "West 
 Lawn."
 
 164 HIDALGO 
 
 WEST LAWN BIRD PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 We, the undersigned, residents of West 
 Lawn, Illinois, for the better protection of 
 the songbirds and other harmless birds that 
 are not used for food, and for the protection 
 of the nests of such birds, do hereby form 
 ourselves into an association under the name 
 of the West Lawn Bird Protective Associa- 
 tion. 
 
 First. We agree we will, so far as we 
 can, help to enforce the laws in relation to 
 such birds and their nests. 
 
 Second. We agree that we will cease col- 
 lecting the eggs from the nests of such birds, 
 and that we will not, even in play, shoot at 
 such birds with our shooters, air guns or 
 other guns, or throw at them, and we each 
 agree that we will do our best to keep the 
 other boys from robbing birds' nests or 
 shooting at birds as mentioned. 
 
 Maybe you can get up a bird protection 
 association and write a paper like this for 
 the boys to sign. 
 
 We were at one of the firms a few days 
 ago and Mr. Anderson told us that his horse 
 Billy had been taken sick while in the pas- 
 ture lot. He stayed in the shade of the big
 
 (^ 
 
 a 
 
 I 
 
 165
 
 HIDALGO 167 
 
 trees. They carried out some straw for him 
 to lie on. Their dog Shep took his place by 
 Billy's side, without anyone telling him to 
 do it, and would not allow any of the hogs 
 or cattle to come near him. After a day or 
 two Billy died. He died in the night. In 
 the morning they found that Shep had car- 
 ried straw and covered Billy all over except 
 his nose. When they buried Billy, Shep 
 stayed on the grave a day and a night before 
 they could get him to come home. They did 
 not know that Shep and Billy were such 
 good friends. Shep is a nice, big dog and 
 is dark colored, as shepherd dogs generally 
 are. 
 
 Noma and Strand, who live on our street 
 have a St. Bernard dog. They call him 
 ' ' Dewey. " He is broken to draw a wagon, 
 and all of us children have had a ride in the 
 wagon. 
 
 Hidalgo is not a bob-tailed horse, although 
 you might think so when you see his pic- 
 ture. He is kept hitched to the buggy or 
 surrey so much of the time in the summer 
 that he whips out his tail fighting flies. A 
 bob-tailed horse is one that has had the bone 
 and flesh of the tail cut off till the horse has
 
 168 HIDALGO 
 
 only a stump of a tail left. Papa would not 
 own a bob-tailed horse. He says that style 
 of horse comes from other countries, and 
 that since we have the finest driving horses 
 in the world he will stick to them and not 
 follow some foreign style. It is very cruel 
 to cut a horse 's tail off. It is not so bad for 
 the horse when he is young and stylish, but 
 when he gets old and poor and perhaps has 
 a master who will not furnish him with a 
 fly net in summer, he will be in a bad fix. 
 There is a law in Illinois against l ' dock- 
 ing" the horses' tails in this way. It might 
 make me laugh to see a horse wiggle his 
 poor little stump of a tail if it did not make 
 me feel so sorry for him. 
 
 Hidalgo is not a good riding horse. Papa 
 does not want him to do anything but walk 
 and trot, and a trotting horse's trot is as 
 bouncy as the "trot, trot to Boston" Papa 
 gives us on his knee, so Papa bought Earl 
 Canady's old "Ned" for us when Earl 
 moved to Clinton, Illinois. Ned is a good, 
 easy-riding horse. He can walk, trot, pace, 
 single-foot, lope or gallop. We children ride 
 him about all day these nice days. Ruth 
 rides on our saddle. Mama is going to
 
 169
 
 HIDALGO 171 
 
 make her a dress with "divided skirts." 
 Papa wants us to learn to ride. He says 
 that few children are learning to ride horse- 
 back. I believe there are about fifteen chil- 
 dren learning to ride on old Ned. 
 
 Lileth and Harry Storms were here not 
 long ago. They live in Chicago, and travel 
 with a children's concert company which 
 gave an entertainment in our church. They 
 have been here so often that Lileth calls our 
 house home whenever she is in Paxton. Old 
 Ned and Frank McLean's pony had plenty 
 to do while the children were here. "We rode 
 turn about nearly all day. The pony ran 
 away with Lileth, but she did not get hurt. 
 
 Papa and Wendell were down town in the 
 buggy the other day and a man wanted 
 Papa to fix some papers for him. Papa said 
 to the man, "Get into the buggy and drive 
 up street. ' ' The man said : "I can 't drive ; 
 I never drove a horse in my life." Papa 
 said: "Get in and Wendell will drive; I 
 don't want to leave him alone." The man 
 got in and Wendell turned and drove Hi- 
 dalgo up street. Wendell is a good driver 
 and rides well for a six-year-old. We 
 thought it was funny that the man could
 
 172 HIDALGO 
 
 not drive a horse. He can manage a boat, 
 though, for he has been a sailor. Papa 
 wants us to drive and ride and to learn to 
 do everything that we can. He says for us 
 to keep our eyes and ears open and to. ask 
 questions. He has never let us be fooled 
 about Santa Claus, yet we always had lots 
 of fun at Christmas. It is a great day at 
 our house, as it is Ruth's and my birthday. 
 We get a double set of presents. We dress 
 up like the picture of Santa Claus and de- 
 liver the presents from the Christmas tree. 
 Children like to make believe, and we enjoy 
 it just as well as if we believed all the fairy 
 stories they tell about Santa Claus. 
 
 Papa always answers any questions we 
 ask him, if he can. He usually answers our 
 questions by asking us questions and mak- 
 ing us think it out for ourselves. When we 
 were three our four years old he told us 
 things that some big boys and girls do not 
 know. He said that he wanted to tell us the 
 things we ought to know and would learn 
 by and by. He thinks that Papas and 
 Mamas do wrong by letting other people or 
 children tell little folks what their parents 
 ought to have told them. The other children
 
 Harry and Lileth. 
 
 173
 
 HIDALGO 175 
 
 cannot tell us anything that we do not know. 
 So what we hear from other children does 
 not make any difference, because we know 
 more than they do, and if we do not we ask 
 Papa about it. What they think is funny 
 or a secret is not a secret or funny to us. 
 
 We were at Grandma's not long ago and 
 Wendell got both hands caught in a pulley. 
 The men were putting the second crop of 
 clover hay into the barn with a hay fork. 
 The hay fork is fastened to one end of a 
 long rope and the rope is carried up over 
 a pulley, which is hung in the top of the 
 hay loft. Then the rope is run down 
 through a pulley that is fastened to the barn 
 floor. A horse is hitched to this end of the 
 rope. They stick the hay fork into the hay 
 that is on the wagon. The horse pulls on 
 the rope and up goes a fork load of hay into 
 the hay loft. When the hay gets to the right 
 place the man on the wagon pulls a little 
 rope that is fastened to the hay fork and 
 makes the fork let loose of the hay. 
 
 It is hard pulling for the horse, and when 
 the hay drops he takes several quick steps 
 forward. Wendell said he was helping the 
 horse by pulling down on the rope. When
 
 176 HIDALGO 
 
 the hay dropped both of his hands were 
 jerked into the pulley. The rope took nearly 
 all the flesh off the inside of three fingers on 
 one hand and took the flesh off the inside of 
 one finger and a nail off the next finger on 
 the other hand. The doctor dressed his 
 hands and tied up all his fingers and one 
 thumb. One night, while his hands were 
 still tied up in the cotton, he called, 
 "Papa!" Papa said: "Yes, Wendell, I 
 am coming as soon as I can turn on the 
 light." When Papa went to him he was 
 sitting in the middle of the bed. He smiled 
 and said, " I'm mixed in bed. ' ' He did not 
 know where the pillows were and he could 
 not feel to find them, and he was afraid that 
 he would fall out of bed if he moved. His 
 hands have healed now, but some of his fin- 
 gers are not just right yet. Papa says boys 
 should stay clear away from pulleys, cog 
 wheels and shafts that turn over. 
 
 One day last week Papa had business out 
 southwest about thirteen miles. He told 
 Ruth that she could go along and to invite 
 some of her girl friends, so she invited 
 Flossy and Bessie Beasley, and they got a 
 picnic supper ready and hunted up their
 
 177
 
 HIDALGO 179 
 
 bathing suits. About this time Wendell and 
 I began to feel pretty badly. We did not 
 want to be left at home, but Kuth said it 
 was her turn to go with Papa and that he 
 had promised her it was to be a girls ' hunt- 
 ing party and that we could not go. Papa 
 got her to agree that Mama, Wendell and I 
 might go as far as Uncle John 's with them. 
 When we came to the timber Mama held 
 Hidalgo and we went squirrel hunting. We 
 had a rifle and two shotguns. We boys were 
 not to shoot. When we started into the 
 timber Papa said, "Now, everybody 
 watch for squirrels." Wendell was bare- 
 . footed, and said: "You watch; I have 
 got to watch my feet." We saw only one 
 squirrel and did not shoot at this. The 
 girls shot the rifle several times at squir- 
 rels' nests, so that they thought they were 
 having fine hunting anyway, I guess. 
 After they left us at Uncle John's they 
 drove eight miles farther, and when they 
 were coming back they stopped to feed 
 Hidalgo and eat their supper at the end 
 of a dredge ditch where there was nice, 
 clean water for the girls to bathe in. The 
 girls used under-the-bridge for a dressing-
 
 180 HIDALGO 
 
 room and put on their bathing suits while 
 Papa fed Hidalgo. They bathed and had 
 their supper and then came for us. It made 
 us late getting home, but it was a nice, warm 
 evening. 
 
 Papa says people forget things because 
 they do not learn them right. One way is 
 to learn a thing so that you can say it but not 
 understand it, another way is to learn a 
 thing so that you can understand it but can- 
 not tell it, but the best way is to learn a thing 
 so that you understand it and can tell it. 
 He has taught us, in just a few lessons, how 
 to divide a section of land and to number the 
 sections in a township. 
 
 To teach us the parts of a section, he laid 
 some books east and west across the middle 
 of a square rug that is in our hall. Then 
 he had us stand in the north part, and asked 
 which half we were in. We told him the 
 north half. Then we found the south half. 
 After that we laid some more books across 
 the middle of the rug north and south, and 
 we found the east half and west half. That 
 divided it into quarters. He asked us to 
 find the quarter to the north and west, and 
 we found it. That was called the northwest
 
 HIDALGO 181 
 
 quarter. He asked us to step into the south' 
 west quarter, southeast quarter and north- 
 east quarter. We learned that there are 640 
 acres in a section, and a half-section, of 
 course, is 320 acres, a quarter-section is 160 
 acres, the half of a quarter-section is eighty 
 acres and a quarter of a quarter-section is 
 forty acres. After we had learned the quar- 
 ters he said: "Now, a man had four chil- 
 dren and he owned the northwest quarter of 
 a section of land. He gave John the north- 
 west quarter of his quarter, ' ' and we learned 
 that they called it the northwest quarter of 
 the northwest quarter. Then the man gave 
 his daughter Jennie the southwest quarter 
 of the northwest quarter, and he gave James 
 the southeast quarter of the northwest quar- 
 ter, and he gave M,innie the northeast quar- 
 ter of the northwest quarter. Papa had us 
 step into the different forty-acre pieces as 
 he described them, and it was only a little 
 w r hile until we could find any quarter of a 
 quarter of the section, and now. we can step 
 from place to place on the rug and tell what 
 part of the section we are in. 
 
 We do not divide the rug into more than 
 four parts, for that mixes us up, but we step
 
 1S2 HIDALGO 
 
 into the corners of the quarters. Papa tells 
 us to " March ! ' ' and we walk around on the 
 rug; then he says "Stop!" and asks us 
 where we are. I say, perhaps, "I'm in the 
 northeast quarter of the southwest quar- 
 ter," and Huth says, "I am in the north- 
 west quarter of the northwest quarter, ' ' then 
 we march again. Papa does not let us work 
 on anything of this kind for more than fif- 
 teen minutes at a time, hut he wants our 
 whole attention while we are at it. 
 
 Then he laid thirty-six pieces of paper 
 down on the floor, that made six each way, 
 like a township, for a township has thirty- 
 six sections in it. We learned that in num- 
 bering the sections in a township they begin 
 at the northeast corner of the township and 
 number west, one, two, three, four, five, six, 
 to the west side. Seven is just south of six, 
 and they number right back to the east, 
 seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, then 
 back and forth till they come to thirty-six, 
 which is at the southeast corner of the town- 
 ship. 
 
 Thursday, the 18th day of October, there 
 was a big rally in Paxton, and Wendell and 
 Papa and T were in the parade. Walter
 
 Rally Day at Paxton. 
 183
 
 HIDALGO 185 
 
 Benjamin was Wendell 's partner. Wendell 
 rode Ned and I rode Prank McLean 's pony. 
 Carl was my partner. He rode his pony. 
 Papa rode Hidalgo in the parade. After 
 the parade we went to the Court House Park 
 to hear the speaking. Wendell went home 
 about the first thing. I stayed a little while, 
 but I did not get any sense out of the speak- 
 ing, so I went home. The pony started off 
 pretty fast and I knew that it was wanting 
 to run, so I pulled and jerked on the reins. 
 When I jerked him he would rear up and 
 then walk about two' steps. When I got 
 to Mr. Day's house I said to him: "This 
 isn't a bucking broncho; it's a running 
 broncho," and just then it went as fast as 
 it could run to the pasture where they kept 
 it. I didn't fall off, though. 
 
 I suppose you will want to hear how we 
 are getting along with our log cabin. We 
 have the walls nearly done and Mr. Morrow 
 built the fireplace yesterday. We had a 
 fire in the fireplace last night. Harold Ste- 
 vens, Earl Canady and Cousin Harry were 
 here. When we got settled around the 
 bright fire we said, "Now is the time for 
 stories, Papa." He said that we had heard
 
 186 HIDALGO 
 
 about all of his stories. We asked him what 
 he and your Papa and Uncle Dave did when 
 they were little. He said that they did a 
 good many things that they should not have 
 done. They raced the horses, on horseback 
 or with the wagons and sleds and came near 
 breaking their necks sometimes. He told 
 us how Uncle Dave used to catch him and 
 your Papa and back their bare backs against 
 the cold wall, and how Aunt Minnie used to 
 change the dressers and beds around, and 
 when the boys would go upstairs to go to 
 bed in the dark, and undress and make a 
 jump onto the bed, the bed would be some 
 other place and the boys would be on the 
 floor. 
 
 One time they had a man to work for them 
 and he got up early. to make the fire. It was 
 pretty dark but he did not light a lamp. 
 Papa slipped out and laid his hand down 
 heavy on the man's back. The man said, 
 "0, my, 0, come, there is something on 
 my back." And he was so frightened he 
 stood leaning over the stove till Papa 
 laughed. 
 
 He used to own a spotted horse that had 
 been in a circus. He called him King. King
 
 187
 
 The Organ in Our Church. 
 189
 
 HIDALGO 191 
 
 is still living and is owned by a man who 
 lives about ten miles from here. King was 
 an awful fighter and when he got loose in 
 the horse tents of the circus he raised a ter- 
 rible row. He was always cross with other 
 horses, while Papa had him, though he was 
 gentle to drive. He could trot or pace and 
 when he came to the main street he would 
 prance just as he had done when he was 
 with the dircus when the band played. He 
 was a fine rider and he could jump over a 
 high fence. One time Papa was riding him 
 and a little girl said, "Why; you've got a 
 painted horse, haven't you?" 
 
 One time a man that lived near Uncle 
 Dave's had a young team of horses that he 
 was breaking to drive. Uncle Dave met him 
 on the road when he had them hitched to a 
 wagon. He asked him how he was getting 
 along breaking the colts. The old man said, 
 "If I raise my hand, so; huh; away they 
 go," and they did. They were running as 
 far as Uncle Dave could see them. 
 
 He told us about the dream he had when 
 he was a little boy. In the morning he got 
 up and he had had a dream. He said to 
 Aunt Minnie, ' 1 1 greamed, I greamed, Min-
 
 192 HIDALGO 
 
 nie, what was it I greamed? Oh, yes, I 
 greamed there was a great big pig after 
 me." 
 
 Mama told us stories of how she and her 
 brothers and sisters used to go bob sled rid- 
 ing and got upset in the snow, and how they 
 coasted down hill, and went horseback rid- 
 ing and how they used to walk along the top 
 rail of the rail fences. She says she thinks 
 it is fun to walk rail fences. She had us try 
 it last summer when we came to a rail fence 
 in the timber. I couldn't walk more than 
 two rails till I had to jump off. The rails 
 won't lie still. Mama went to school in the 
 country when she was little. I just know 
 they had more fun than we do in town. She 
 knows more games than we do. If any one 
 knows a story he is pretty near certain to re- 
 member it if he will sit before a bright fire 
 in our log cabin. 
 
 I will tell you of our trip to Chicago and 
 other places this summer. You were with 
 us when we visited Lincoln Park. I sup- 
 pose that you go up there quite often. We 
 have been in the Park five or six times and 
 we never get tired of it. 
 
 It is most alwavs cool in the Park because
 
 HIDALGO 193 
 
 of the trees and because Lake Michigan is 
 along the East side of it. Do you know how 
 many acres there are in the Park! It looks 
 to be a mile or two long and over half a mile 
 wide. It must take a great deal of work to 
 keep the grounds in such nice condition and 
 to take care of the flower beds. We had our 
 first ride on the camels when you were with 
 us, although we had seen them several times. 
 We will have a ride on the elephant some 
 day. He was not working when we were 
 there. There is enough to see in the Park 
 to keep a person busy for some time. We 
 never get tired looking at the buffalo, zebra, 
 elk, deer, lions, tigers and monkeys and at 
 the eagles and other birds. Once when we 
 were at the Park we rode down to the City 
 on a little steamer. They went out on Lake 
 Michigan as far as the breakwater and took 
 on some passengers. The men had been fish- 
 ing from the breakwater. One day we went 
 from Chicago to Evanston on the electric 
 car and saw the Ferris wheel which is now 
 a little way North of Lincoln Park. I went 
 up in the Ferris wheel when it was at the 
 World's Fair at Chicago. Going up in the 
 Ferris wheel is about all I can remember 
 about the World's Fair.
 
 194 HIDALGO 
 
 When we went from Chicago to Joliet, 
 which is South West of Chicago, we took 
 a boat and went down the drainage canal 
 as far as Lockport and then rode on an elec- 
 tric car from Lockport to Joliet. It was hot 
 weather when we made that trip and al- 
 though there were many wonderful things 
 to look at there were plenty of things that 
 did not smell sweet, especially in the Chi- 
 cago river near the stock yards. The drain- 
 age canal is a big ditch that was made to 
 take the water from the Chicago river. This 
 water used to flow into Lake Michigan. The 
 canal carries it South West into the Des- 
 plaines river. They did this so that they 
 could keep the bad water, sewerage they 
 call it, from going into Lake Michigan. 
 They commenced at the Chicago river on the 
 West side of Chicago and made the canal 
 200 feet wide for several miles till they came 
 to where it was solid rock, then they made it 
 only 100 feet wide. The sides of the canal, 
 where it is solid rock, are as smooth as a 
 wall. They used saws that were run by en- 
 gines to cut the rock on each side of the 
 ditch and broke up the rock in the center by 
 blasting it with powder. There were ele- 
 vators and cars to take the stone out of the
 
 HIDALGO 195 
 
 ditch. There is a lock at Lockport. A lock 
 is a tight gate made across the canal which 
 may be raised or lowered so that the water 
 can be held or allowed to flow out as it is 
 needed. 
 
 We visited in Joliet for a day or two and 
 then came back to Chicago on the Chicago 
 and Alton Eailroad. The banks of the drain- 
 age canal can be seen from the railroad. 
 They look lik mountains. We found one 
 place that beat the Chicago river for bad 
 odors and that was the old canal at Joliet. 
 It is separated from the drainage canal and 
 it is so nearly level that they can hold the 
 water in it as long as they please. The 
 water had been kept in the canal until it was 
 as black as coal and it smelled worse than 
 any water I ever smelled. If I lived in Joliet 
 I would have them clean the canal or I would 
 leave the City, unless I were in the State's 
 prison. 
 
 When we went to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 
 to visit Papa 's relatives, we left Chicago on 
 the ' ; Christopher Columbus ' ' or whale-back 
 boat. They call it the l ' whale-back ' ' because 
 the hull looks like the back of a whale. This 
 is the boat they used at the World's Fair to
 
 196 HIDALGO 
 
 give people a ride on Lake Michigan. It is 
 said to be the largest excursion boat in the 
 world. Papa thought that there were 
 twenty-five hundred people on the boat that 
 day. The price of a round trip ticket from 
 Chicago to Milwaukee is one dollar if you 
 come back the same day, or one dollar and 
 fifty cents if you stay over as we did. We 
 thought that it was the finest trip for the 
 money that we ever took. 
 
 Milwaukee is the cleanest and prettiest 
 city that we were ever in. While we were 
 there our friends took us to the parks and 
 aiound over the city. We saw about forty 
 deer at one of the parks. The parks are all 
 new, but they have fine old trees in them. 
 It is up hill and down hill in the parks so 
 the ponds and lakes were easily made. 
 
 One day we took the electric car and went 
 North of Milwaukee to White Fish Bay. 
 That is a pretty place. We gathered colored 
 stones and played in the white sand and 
 waded in the water. The waves would chase 
 us back and wet us if we did not get back 
 quick enough. I came near getting run over 
 by a street car while we were in Milwaukee. 
 Wendell and I were racing to see which
 
 I 
 
 197
 
 199
 
 HIDALGO 201 
 
 i 
 
 could get to the house first. I waited for a 
 street car that was going East to pass and 
 after it passed started to cross the tracks and 
 the men on the car called to me to stop. I 
 was just stepping on to the track in front of 
 a car going West. Papa had told us when 
 we got off a car to stand still before cross- 
 ing the track until our car got clear away so 
 that we could see if there was a car coming 
 from the other direction. He had told us to 
 do the same way when we were waiting for 
 a car to pass. I do not think I shall forget 
 again. 
 
 Our friends had a large, fine looking pac- 
 
 - ing horse that has a record of 2 :22 and he 
 
 took us over those pavements as fast as we 
 
 wanted to go. That horse knows about ^s 
 
 much as Hidalgo does. 
 
 We went back to Chicago on a boat called 
 the "Virginia." It was not so large as the 
 "Whaleback" but was better furnished. A 
 day or two after we came back from Mil- 
 waukee we took the boat called the ' ' City of 
 Chicago" and crossed the lake to St. Joe, 
 Michigan. From there we rode on the cars 
 about fifteen miles East to Paw Paw Lake. 
 Then we rode on a little steamer to our stop-
 
 202 HIDALGO 
 
 ping place. We boarded at "Lincoln's 
 Cabin." The cabin was built by a Mr. Lin- 
 coln and it was made from slabs from the 
 saw mill like our log cabin. We had nice 
 weather while we were there except that it 
 was very warm. We went bathing and we 
 walked through the woods and rode on the 
 steamers and took rides in the row boats. 
 
 One day we took a row boat and rowed 
 down Paw Paw river. The Paw Paw is a 
 narrow, deep, river, very crooked and very 
 pretty. We were in the shade of the trees 
 most of the time. The water does not run 
 from the river into Paw Paw T Lake, but from 
 Paw Paw Lake into Paw Paw river. There 
 are no creeks or rivers running into Paw 
 Paw Lake and the Lake is kept fresh and 
 full by springs of water. Paw Paw river 
 runs into St. Joe river and St. Joe river runs 
 into Lake Michigan. If you follow the banks 
 around Paw Paw lake it is about eighteen 
 miles and there are houses and cottages al- 
 most all the way around the lake. 
 
 Another time we went across the lake to 
 the Sherwood Fruit Farm. That is about 
 the largest fruit farm in the State of Michi- 
 gan. They have four hundred acres of peach
 
 Paw Paw River 
 
 203
 
 fc/D 
 
 rs 
 
 205
 
 HIDALGO 207 
 
 orchards and a great many acres of apple 
 and pear trees. They set out the fruit that 
 is too ripe to ship and tell you to eat all you 
 want. The peaches and pears were fine. 
 We bought a basket of peaches and a basket 
 of pears. I guess you know that because 
 you helped to eat them when we got back 
 to Chicago. 
 
 We came back to Chicago on the "City 
 of Milwaukee." W r e had a bad time of it 
 for as soon as the boat got out of the harbor 
 it began to rock and pitch. It was the day 
 of the cyclone at Sheboygan, Wisconsin, 
 which made the lake very rough. The cabin 
 boys brought up dozens of tin buckets and 
 set them about the cabin. Everybody 
 laughed but about half of us quit laughing 
 pretty soon and found use for the buckets. 
 If you do not want to get sick when the lake 
 is rough, get outside and watch the water 
 and it is not nearly so bad. Mama asked 
 one lady where she felt sick and she said, 
 "Oh, all over/' and she looked as if she felt 
 just that way. I wasn't very sick but I felt 
 so dizzy I couldn 't stand up. The boat was 
 late getting into Chicago that night. 
 
 And now winter has come again and we
 
 208 HIDALGO 
 
 have finished our log cabin and when I tell 
 you something more about the cabin and 
 what we have gathered up to put in it, I am 
 going to finish my letter. Papa got pretty 
 well tired out before he finished the cabin 
 but he will not say that he is sorry that he 
 built it, because we all like it so much, and 
 we have had such good luck in getting 
 things to put into it. We bought from one 
 man four buffalo horns and two Dutch 
 ovens. The o' T ns are like skillets, only they 
 have legs on them and have iron covers. 
 They are to set in the open fire instead of 
 on a stove. We also bought a pair of old 
 tongs to use about the open fire. Then we 
 got from him a real Indian bow and arrow, 
 an old sword, a cutlass, a gun and two candle 
 snuffers. A gentleman is letting us keep 
 for him his collection of old things, two 
 swords, two guns, a wooden clock and an old 
 table. We have a spinning wheel, a reel to 
 wind the thread on, cards for carding flax 
 or wool, a hackle, to break flax on, a shuttle 
 that they used in weaving, candle molds and 
 candle sticks and the best of all, an old rope 
 bedstead. It is made of cherry wood, in- 
 stead of slats and bed springs it has pegs
 
 f 
 1 
 
 209
 
 211
 
 HIDALGO 213 
 
 set into the side and end pieces. We run 
 the rope back and forth across the bed, hook- 
 ing the rope over the pegs, then the mattress 
 rests on this rope. We have nearly all the 
 tilings we need to set up housekeeping in the 
 log cabin .except old dishes. Outside of the 
 cabin we have a porch roof and under it we 
 hung two ox yokes, a side saddle, a man's 
 saddle, a scythe, a sickle and a rake. We 
 want to get an old fashioned grain cradle, 
 that was used to cut wheat and oats. Out- 
 side of the cabin, by the side of the chimney, 
 we have the tank for soft water that is used 
 in the bath room and all over the house. 
 Papa fixed a windlass on the tank with a 
 rope and "The Old Oaken Bucket That 
 Hung in the Well. ' ' This^made it look like 
 a well at the end of the cabin. 
 
 We have had the fire lighted in the fire- 
 place several times and when the wood burns 
 and crackles and makes pretty firelight and 
 we crack and eat hickory nuts and eat ap- 
 ples ' and Mama and Papa tell us stories, 
 then we are about as happy as can be. We 
 will get some pictures taken of the log cabin 
 and then you can see for yourself how it 
 looks.
 
 21 1 HIDALGO 
 
 The cabin door has a wooden bar on the 
 inside which has an iron bolt through it and 
 through the door. There is a string tied to 
 the bar and we can run the string through 
 an auger hole that is in the door. When the 
 string is out a person on the outside of the 
 cabin can raise the bar or latch up out of its 
 place and they can come in, but unless the 
 latch string is out you cannot get in. Our 
 latch string is always out to you or to any 
 one w T ho wants to see our cabin and our old 
 curiosities. 
 
 My letter is finished. Good bye. 
 Your cousin, 
 
 HOWARD MCCRACKEN. 
 
 P. S. Last Sunday at about two o'clock 
 we were eating our dinner. Papa had just 
 served our plates and we heard something 
 fall in the upstairs hall. Papa went to see 
 what it was. He came running down stairs 
 and said, "It is fire." Mama went to the 
 telephone and told Central to give the alarm. 
 The fire whistle blew, and when it blows it 
 excites the whole town because they know it 
 means a fire and because it is the worst 
 whistle you ever heard. It is called a siren
 
 215
 
 HIDALGO 217 
 
 whistle. Our neighbors saw the smoke and 
 knew of the fire before we did. By the time 
 Papa came down stairs they were coming 
 from every direction. The fire had started 
 in the ceiling of the second story of the 
 house or under the attic floor. We have not 
 found out how it caught fire, some think 
 there must have been a hole in the chimney 
 and that the soot in the kitchen stove pipe 
 burnt out. Others think that it started in 
 the wall behind the cook stove. Papa and 
 the neighbors attached our hose to the faucet 
 in the basement and carried the other end 
 of the hose to the attic. The attic was so 
 full of smoke that they could not get in to 
 save any of the old things. Papa turned the 
 water on to the fire but the stream of water 
 was too small to do any good. When the 
 fire had spread over the roof he gave it up 
 and came down. Mama and Grandma had 
 opened our two sets of double doors at the 
 front of the house. Four men picked up the 
 piano and walked right out with it. Some 
 more men picked up the dining table and 
 carried it out with all the dishes and our 
 dinner on it. Everybody says now that those 
 big doors and the big sliding doors inside
 
 21S HIDALGO 
 
 of the house were a fine thing when the 
 house got on fire. They had about all the 
 furniture and goods out when the fire com- 
 pany came. The firemen had been told that 
 it was our house that was on fire. The horses 
 hitched to the Ladder wagon and Hose carts 
 came on the run, the fireman hanging on as 
 best they could. The bells on the wagon 
 were clanging and everybody got out of the 
 way. When the firemen turned on the water 
 with the big hose they soon put out the fire 
 and they left about six inches of water in 
 our basement. The roof and attic all burned 
 and the fire got dow r n into the second story 
 in four rooms and the hall. It also burned 
 one wall in the kitchen. 
 
 There was a large crowd at the fire and 
 they were sorry to see our new house burned, 
 but Papa and Mama told them not to mind, 
 that we could build another house and they 
 were so glad that no one got hurt or burned. 
 Grandpa saw me rolling on the grass and 
 crying and he saw men running so he 
 thought, "Oh, my, a child has been hurt." 
 He said he was very glad when he saw it 
 was only the house on fire. The house is 
 badly damaged by fire and water. We have
 
 219
 
 HIDALGO 221 
 
 enough insurance to build it up again, so 
 ,Papa or the Insurance Company will make 
 it as good as ever. It will be about six 
 months before we can move into it again be- 
 cause it is winter now and it will take a long 
 time to fix -it. We have rented a house 
 across the street from our house and we are 
 not in so bad a fix as some folks are when 
 they have their homes burned. 
 
 We had company Friday evening before 
 the fire and about fifty persons saw our log 
 cabin that evening. We had six candles 
 burning and the fire was burning in the fire- 
 place. Everybody seemed pleased with the 
 cabin and our old things. We are glad so 
 many saw it before it was burned. 
 
 We feel badly about losing our cabin and 
 the things we had in it and we are sorry that 
 we did not get a picture of the cabin. 
 
 Papa says that he cannot afford to carry 
 up five tons of stuff another time to build a 
 cabin in the attic so he has begged an old log 
 cabin of Uncle John and will have the logs 
 brought in this winter, when the snow comes, 
 and have a cabin built in the back yard. 
 Then we will have a real log cabin instead 
 of one that looks like a log cabin. We can
 
 222 HIDALGO 
 
 build a big chimney from the ground on the 
 outside of the cabin and we can have vines 
 growing up over the cabin. We will gather 
 up old things again to put in it. 
 Good bye again, 
 
 Your Cousin, 
 
 HOWARD.
 
 PICTURESQUE AMERICAN BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 "In John Paul Jones and Ethan Allen, Mr. Brown found two of the 
 most picturesque figures in the life of the country, and he has shown 
 himself able to deal with them as historical persons, without detract- 
 ing anything from the romantic qualities of their individuality. He 
 competes with historical fiction by developing the superior interest 
 of the facts as they grew out of the life of his heroes and the life of 
 their times. Few biographies intended for popular reading and the 
 widest general cjrculation illustrates this same faculty of measuring 
 statement and giving its governing value to fac^ while developing the 
 picturesque and the romantic as it lies latent in history." WILLIAM 
 VINCENT BYABS in Th*, St. Louis Star. 
 
 DEEDS OF 
 
 ETHAN ALLEN 
 
 AND THE GREEN 
 MOUNTAIN BOYS 
 
 By Charles matter Brown, H. ttt. 
 
 Author of "John Paul Jones," "Nathan 
 Hale," "Lafayette," "Pulaski," "Wash- 
 ington," "Abraham Lincoln," "Sherman." 
 16 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 "It is the best 'life' of Ethan Allen pub- 
 lished." Chicago Chronicle. 
 
 "It abounds in incidents, anecdotes and ad- 
 ventures." Louisville Courier Journal. 
 
 "It is a painstaking and accurate biog- 
 raphy, possessing the fascination of ro- 
 mance."^. Louis Republic. 
 
 "The account of the expedition into Can- 
 ada and Allen's lamentable capture by the 
 British, near Montreal, holds the reader's 
 attention with all the force of a work of 
 fiction." Chicago Journal. 
 12mo, cloth, size 5%x7%, nearly 300 
 
 pages. Price, Postpaid $1.00 
 
 JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
 Bv Charles matter Brown, P.. lit. 
 
 12 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 "This book is a credit to any publishing 
 house." Detroit free Press. 
 
 "The publication is a careful and com- 
 mendable one." Chicago Journal. 
 
 "The public will readily welcome this 
 new and valuable biography of John Paul 
 Jones." Indianapolis Sentinel. 
 
 "Mr. Brown is a faithful biographer and 
 historian, and has the happy knack of 
 making his hero live again in the imagi- 
 nation of his host of readers." Literary 
 Life, New York. 
 Size, 5%x7% ; nearly 300 pages; 12mo, 
 
 cloth. Price, Postpaid .............. $1.00 
 
 This set of two volumes, "Allen" and 
 
 "Jones " sent to one address, express 
 
 paid, for .......................... $1.25 
 
 M. A. DONOHUE & CO M
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBAN* 
 
 HIDALGO AND HOME LIFE AT WEST LAWN CHIC