I was received with great kindness and volubility by the immense hostess, "la grosse Americaine," as she was called, and she soon installed me in the arm-chair, in the warmest corner, and in due time set an excellent supper before us.
But her hospitality did not extend to giving up her only bed for my accommodation.

She spread all the things she could muster on the hard floor before the fire, and did what she could to make me comfortable; then, observing my husband's solicitude lest I might feel ill from the effects of the fatigue and rain, she remarked, in tones of admiring sympathy, "How kind your _companion_ is to you!"-- an expression which, as it was then new to us, amused us not a little.
Our travelling companions started early in the morning for the Fort, which was but twelve miles distant, and they were so kind as to take charge of a note to our friends at home, requesting them to send Plante with the carriage to take us the rest of the distance.
We reached the Portage in safety; and thus ended the first journey by land that any white woman had made from Green Bay to Fort Winnebago.

I felt not a little raised in my own esteem when my husband informed me that the distance I had the previous day travelled, from Knaggs's to Bellefontaine, was sixty-two miles!.