but they take to it just as
naturally!"

"If I have got to choose between side-meat and clay for a regular
diet," said Sandy, "give me side-meat every time."

That night, having made their plans to avoid the prying eyes of the
border-State men, who in great numbers were now coming in, well-armed
and looking somewhat grimly at the free-State men, the little party
crossed the river. Ten dollars, good United States money, was demanded
by the ferryman as the price of their passage; it looked like robbery,
but there was no other way of getting over the river and into the
Promised Land; so it was paid, with many a wrench of the patience of
the indignant immigrants; and they pitched their tent that night under
the stars and slept soundly on the soil of "bleeding Kansas."

Bright and early next morning, the boys were up and stirring, for now
was to begin their camp life. Hitherto, they had slept in their tent,
but had taken their meals at the farm-houses and small taverns of the
country through which they had passed. They would find few such
conveniences in the new country into which they had come, and they had
been warned that in Kansas the rule was "every man for himself."

They made sad work with their first breakfast in camp. Oscar had taken
a few lessons in cooking from his mother, before leaving home, and the
two men had had some experience in that line of duty when out on
hunting expeditious in Illinois, years before. So they managed to make
coffee, fry slices of side-meat, and bake a hoe-cake of Indian-corn
meal. "Hog and hominy," said Sandy's father. "That's the diet of the
country, and that is what we shall come to, and we might as well take
it first as last."

"There's worse provender than this, where there's none," said Mr.
Bryant, cheerfully; "and before we get through we shall be hungry more
than once for hog and hominy."

It was an enlivening sight that greeted the eyes of the newcomers as
they looked around upon the flat prairie that stretched along the
river-side. The tents of the immigrants glistened in the rising sun.
The smoke of many camp-fires arose on the summer air. Groups of men
were busily making preparations for their long tramp westward, and,
here and there, women and children were gathered around the
white-topped wagons, taking their early breakfast or getting ready for
the day's march. Here, too, could now be seen the rough and
surly-looking border men who were on the way to points along the