FROM YOUTH TO AGE AS AN AMERICAN.
By John Minto.
CHAPTER II.
LEARNING TO LIVE ON THE LAND.
I cannot say but that I had a bearable existence while mining coal in Pennsylvania. The comparative freedom of life and the hope of wider opportunities began in me with my first glimpses into frontier literature and observing how easy it seemed to live well from the land. It was called hard times, and doubtless was,[1] to those who had to get money from their crops; but beyond this general condition I learned to look to the frontier and beyond, and resolved that I would reach it by the first opportunity, and that came to me in the city of St. Louis, when I was informed that family men of means were preparing to emigrate to Oregon. I lost no time in getting among them and engaging my labor for the opportunity of coming with one of the very best among them. I kept my engagement in such a way as secured me more than I had any right to expect, and the good will of the family in addition, marrying the oldest daughter the third year after our arrival in Oregon.
The first labor I did in Oregon was in the superb timber on the foothills of the Coast Range. I made fence-rails and cut and helped to roll and notch logs into the walls of claimholding cabins. D. Clark, S. B. Crokett and myself, after we had squared accounts with Gen. M. M. McCarver for provisions furnishfd us on the Umatilla, were engaged by a contractor for such work called "Little Osborn," and the four of
- ↑ There were stay laws that intervened, creditors being given three months time to make payment of five dollars, with longer time as the debt increased. A good meal of cold food was set out in a wayside tavern for 6¼ cents, and a clean and warm feather bed at the same price. An advertised force sale sometimes failed for lack of bidders.
