the Family Bible
as Susan Mahaly.

Her Pap divided his time between collecting at a Toll-Gate and
defending the Military Reputation of Andy Jackson.

The family dwelt in what was then regarded by Cambridge, Mass., as the
Twilight Zone of Semi-Culture, viz., Swigget County, Pennsylvania.

Susan wore Linsey-Woolsey from Monday to Saturday. She never had
tampered with her Venus de Milo Topography and she did not even
suspect that Women had Nerves.

When she was seventeen she had a Fore-Arm like a Member of the
Turnverein.

She knew how to Card and Weave and Dye. Also she could make Loose Soap
in a kettle out in the Open Air.

Susan never fell down on her Salt-Rising Bread. Her Apple Butter was
always A1.

It was commonly agreed that she would make some Man a good
Housekeeper, for she was never sickly and could stay on her Feet
sixteen hours at a Stretch.

Already she was beginning to look down the Pike for a regular Fellow.

In the year 1840, the Lass of seventeen who failed to get her Hooks on
some roaming specimen of the Opposite Gender was in danger of being
whispered about as an Old Maid. Celibacy was listed with Arson and
Manslaughter.

Rufus was destined to be an Early Victorian Rummy, but he could lift a
Saw-Log, and he would stand without being hitched, so Susan nailed him
the third time he came snooping around the Toll-Gate.

Rufus did not have a Window to hoist or a Fence to lean on. But there
is no Poverty in any Pocket of the Universe until Wealth arrives and
begins to get Luggy.

Susan thought she was playing in rare Luck to snare a Six-Footer who
owned a good Squirrel Rifle and could out-wrastle all Comers.

The Hills of Pennsylvania were becoming congested, with Neighbors not
more than two or three miles apart, so Rufus and his Bride decided to
hit a New Trail into the Dark Timber and grow up with the Boundless
West.

Relatives of the Young Couple staked them to a team of Pelters, a
Muley Cow, a Bird Dog of dubious Ancestry, an Axe and a Skillet, and
started them over the Divide toward the perilous Frontier, away out
yender in Illinoy.

It was a Hard Life. As they trundled slowly over the rotten Roads,
toward the Land of Promise, they had to subsist largely on Venison,
Prairie Chicken, Quail, Black Bass, Berries, and Wild Honey. They
carried their own Coffee.

Arrived at the Jumping-Off Place, they settled down among the Mink and
Musk-Rats. Rufus hewed out and jammed together a little