father had taken with him only just enough money to pay his way,
although he had by no means exhausted his resources in Sweden, for he
had prudently decided to spend at least a year in seeing the country and
making himself familiar with its institutions, customs, manner of
tilling the soil, etc. At this time he was a strong man, at the age of
fifty. In order to obtain steady work, we two, and a few others of our
company, hired a man in Galesburg to take us to Rock River, where a
bridge for the Chicago & Rock Island Railroad was being built. We all
got work, and had to take hold of the spade and the shovel. The wages in
those days for railroad laborers were from seventy-five cents to one
dollar per day. I received only seventy-five cents, out of which my
board was to be paid, which, however, was very cheap, one dollar and a
half per week only. A Swede by the name of Hoffman kept a boarding house
for thirty-four of us, and all would have been well except for the ague.
No man remained there many days without getting the "shakes;" I and my
father got them the second day. The lower part of the shanty in which we
boarded was used for dining-room and kitchen, the upper for sleeping on
the floor. The shanty was as shaky as the ague, which came regularly
every other day. Fate had so arranged it that seventeen of us had the
chills one day, and seventeen the next day. Hoffman and his wife
fortunately also had the chills alternate days, so that there was always
one to attend to the cooking.

Some may doubt it, but it is a solemn fact, that when seventeen ate
dinner below, the shaking of those upstairs sometimes shook the house
until we could hear the plates rattling on the table.

During my healthy days I stood on the bottom of Rock River from seven
o'clock in the morning until seven at night, throwing wet sand with a
shovel onto a platform above, from which it was again thrown to another,
and from there to terra firma. The most disagreeable part of the
business was that one-quarter of each shovel-full came back on the head
of the operator.

After a couple of weeks the company's paymaster came along, and upon
settling my board bill and deducting for the shaking days, I made the
discovery that I was able to earn only fifteen cents net per week in
building railroad bridges.

Being half dead by this time from over work and sickness, we decided to
see if we could strike an easier job, and, if possible, a better
climate. We happened