These blocks they wanted split up in pieces about an inch square to mix in with charcoal in smelting ore.

He said he would board me with the other men, and give me a dollar and a quarter a cord for splitting the wood.

I felt awfully poor, and a stranger, and this was a beginning for me at any rate, so I went to work with a will and never lost a minute of daylight till I had split up all the wood and filled his woodhouse completely up.

The board was very coarse--bacon, potatoes, and bread--a man cook, and bread mixed up with salt and water.

The old log house where we lodged was well infested with troublesome insects which worked nights at any rate, whether they rested days or not, and the beds had a mild odor of pole cat.