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Michigan Towns Select Towns
We had now a chamber, and I took great delight in arranging it, partitioning off bed rooms with curtains, spare sheets, etc. We had a huge fire-place, made of the sandstone taken from the bank of the river, near which was situated our dwelling. It occupied almost one entire side of the cabin, leaving barely room in one corner for a ladder. One of our packing boxes, furnished with shelves, and a table cloth hung in front, occupied the other corner, serving the double purpose of pantry and cupboard, which was usually well supplied with-fish, flesh and fowl; the river affording an abundance of excellent fish. My little brother, then nearly fourteen, was very expert with his rifle, and, though not successful with large game, managed to kill a great many prairie hens, wild ducks and pheasants. I accompanied him in many of his rambles, sometimes along the river, but often over the plains, where we would stop and gather hickory nuts, which lay under almost every tree in great abundance. Of these we gathered a large store, hoping they might prove, in some degree, a substitute for the fruit which we must now learn to do without, at least, for the present, and which we feared we should much miss during the long evenings of the approaching winter. In the meantime, the site for our new house had been selected, the timber brought to the spot, the cellar dug, the wall laid up from the same kind of stone that composed our fire-place, and all things were in readiness for raising, which event was looked upon as of no small consequence, as it would be the first frame house in the town.
Michigan
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