Then, if there was no improvement, I would turn my back on Kansas forever.
"Master Thomas," said Jack, as the dismal December afternoon drew to a close, "thar isn't a pound ob flour in de house.

Shall I go to de village and get some ?" "No; I will go myself." It was the sudden realization of the unutterable loneliness I would feel without any companion that led me to this rash declaration.

The town was only a mile distant, but it would require hours to make the journey there and back, and I could not bear the thought of being without the society of any one for that time.

I had read everything in the house; the single horse and cow I owned had been looked after, and there was absolutely nothing to do but to sit down before the scant fire, listen to the sifting of the snow against the window panes, and give way to gloomy reverie.
Anything was preferable to this, and it was with a feeling akin to relief that I added: "I might do so had I not noticed this afternoon that he had gone lame." "Better let de flour go, den, for de snow am too deep and de storm to heavy for you to tramp all de way to town and back again." "No; while I haven't much fear of our starving, yet, if the snow-fall continues, we shall be in a bad way.

I can carry twenty-five pounds without trouble, and will be back in a few hours; then the storm may rage as hard as it pleases, for all we care." The preparations were quickly made, and, to shorten my story, I may say that, after a laborious tramp, I reached the village without mishap, bought my quarter of a hundred of flour, slung it over my shoulder, and started on my return.
By this time I had made several disquieting discoveries.