E-text prepared by Roger Frank
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
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THE
CABIN ON THE PRAIRIE
BY
DR. C. H. PEARSON
AUTHOR OF "SCENES IN THE WEST," ETC.
ILLUSTRATED
BOSTON:
LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by
LEE AND SHEPARD,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
TO
MY SISTER,
WHOSE SPIRIT HAS JUST GONE FROM PRAIRIE-LIFE
TO THE HILLS OF PARADISE,
I INSCRIBE THIS BOOK.
C. H. PEARSON
A FRONTIER PROPHET
INTRODUCTORY
“If you stay here long, you will become so Westernizedthat you will lose all love for New England. That’s myexperience.” So said a brawny pioneer, a man of largemind, and generous heart, and a sledge-hammer fist thatnever struck a coward’s blow; but when swung in defenceof the right was like “the jaw-bone” of Samson to thePhilistines. He had emigrated from Maine twenty yearsbefore, and was one of the first settlers I met on the prairienear the scene of my story. Was his prediction fulfilled?Ah, how like sweetest music sounded the bells of Salem(city of peace) the first Sunday of my return to the OldBay State! Besides, the frontiersman misrepresented himself.For, seated by his ample clay-stick-and-stone fireplace,how his eye kindled, and tones mellowed, as hetreated us to reminiscences of his early days! And whata grip he gave the hand of a freshly-arrived Yankee!
Then there were those east who said, “You will soontire of the West.” They, also, were mistaken. An invalid,with shadowy form and trembling limbs, when I left NewEngland, I awakened to a new life in Minnesota. “Takea gun on your shoulders, kill and eat the wild game ofthe prairies,” said my medical friends. I anticipated vicissitudeand deprivation in following such counsel; but these6toughened my weak frame, and added zest to frontier laborsand pleasures; for I was soon able to do a man’s shareof the former, and in threading forest and prairie I wasbrought into delightful nearness to nature in its beauty,freshness, and magnitude, and in visiting the lodge of theIndian and the cabins of the settlers I met with plentyof adventure.
In writing this work, I