For this was nothing less than the "Sod Tavern," a house built of cakes of the tenacious prairiesod.

No other material was used except the popple-poles, which served for supports to the sod-roof.

The tavern was not over ten feet high at the apex of the roof; it had been built for two or three years, and the grass was now growing on top.

A red-shirted publican sallied out of this artificial grotto, and invited the ladies and gentlemen to dinner.
It appeared, from a beautifully-engraved map hanging on the walls of the Sod Tavern, that this earthly tabernacle stood in the midst of an ideal town.

The map had probably been constructed by a poet, for it was quite superior to the limitations of sense and matter-of-fact.