stacks. I run that wet blanket around the stacks as fast as I could
several times. My husband came driving like mad with half a load of hay
on the rack and grabbed me but as the stubble was short that sopping
saved the stacks.

We had a German hired man that we paid $30 a month for six months. Crops
were plentiful and we hoped for a good price. No such good luck. Wheat
was 25c a bushel and oats 12-1/2. He hauled grain to market with our ox
team to pay himself and was nearly all winter getting his money. That
was before the war. We boarded him for nothing while he was doing it.
How little those who enjoy this state now think what is cost the makers
of it!

Mrs. Mary Robinson--1856.

We came to St. Anthony in 1856. Butter was 12-1/2c a pound; potatoes
15c a bushel and turnips, 10c. I have never seen finer vegetables. We
made our mince pies of potatoes soaked in vinegar instead of apples.

One of our neighbors was noted for her molasses sponge cake. If asked
for the recipe, she would give it as follows: "I take some molasses and
saleratus and flour and shortening, and some milk. How much? Oh, a
middling good sized piece, and enough milk to make it the right
thickness to bake good." Needless to say, she continued to be the only
molasses sponge cake maker.

Mrs. Margaret A. Snyder--1856.

Mr. Snyder and Mr. Pettit used to batch it in a cabin in Glencoe before
our marriage. In '56 we decided to move to Glencoe and live in this
place. We, together with Mr. Cook and Mr. McFarland were forty-eight
hours going the sixty miles. We stayed the first night at Carver and the
next night got to "Eight Mile Dutchman's." When we came to the cabin we
found the walls and ceiling covered with heavy cotton sheeting. My
mother had woven me a Gerton rag carpet which we had with us. The
stripes instead of running across, ran lengthwise. There was a wide
stripe of black and then many gaily colored stripes. When it was down on
the floor, it made everything cheerful. We had bought some furniture too
in Minneapolis so everything looked homelike. Later, six of us neighbor
women were invited into the country to spend the day. While we were gone
some of the neighbors said, "The mosquitoes must be awful at the
Snider's today--they have such a smudge." A little later, they saw the
house was in flames. In this fire, we lost money and notes together with
all our possessions. These notes were never paid, as we had no record so
we were left poor i