Near sundown I came to a small prairie of about 500 acres surrounded by scattering burr-oak timber, with not a hill in sight, and it seemed to me to be the most beautiful spot on earth.

This I found to belong to a man named Meachem, who had an octagon concrete house built on one side of the opening.

The house had a hollow column in the center, and the roof was so constructed that all the rain water went down this central column into a cistern below for house use.
The stairs wound around this central column, and the whole affair was quite different from the most of settlers' houses.

I staid here all night, had supper and breakfast, and paid my bill of thirty-five cents.
He had no work for me so I went on again.

I crossed Heart Prairie, passed through a strip of woods, and out at Round Prairie.