defence. While the administration, with that corruption which will make it infamous in the annals of our country in all coming time, turns a deaf ear to the agonized cry of widows and orphans; while the President says, "No acts prejudicial to good order have occurred under circumstances to justify the interposition of the federal government," the ear of Him, who will call to account for

his stewardship any who make so base a use of power, is open, and he sends, for the present safety, this weather of unequalled severity, and fast-falling snows.

Horses go ploughing through it, with difficulty making any headway. The most people we see moving to-day are with heavy sleds of wood, drawn by three or four yoke of oxen. We burn a cord and a half of wood a week, and, our wood-pile growing less not very gradually, we have watched with a good deal of interest a load which attempted to come up the hill this afternoon. The oxen pulled with all their strength; the driver now coaxed, and then scolded. The oxen would lose their foothold, and plunge headlong into the deep drifts. Sometimes the forward yoke of cattle would turn fairly around, and face the load. All exertions to right them were of no avail until they were unyoked. As the night was coming fast, and the driver two miles from home, the load was thrown off about half way up the hill. The next morning the man came back, and succeeded in getting half of the load to the house. He was until midnight getting home the previous night, as he lost his way and wandered about hours in the darkness.

Wood is one of the principal articles of consumption here this winter. Most of that burned is black walnut. There is also no lack of provisions here. Flour of the best quality can be bought in Missouri for four dollars and a half per hundred. We have always had good flour until this winter. Just after the invasion, a load of flour made of grown wheat was brought in. Apples, of the best quality and flavor, are very plenty. They sold in the autumn for one dollar a bushel. Sweet potatoes were abundant at one dollar twenty-five cents. These, with the apples, came from Missouri, but the nicest of squashes and other vegetables were raised in the territory. Squashes sold for one cent per

pound, and pumpkins one dollar and fifty cents per hundred. Butter, made here, is very nice, and until quite recently has been plenty at twenty-five cents. Milk varies from four to ten cents per quart. Beside the meats, beef, etc., venison, prairie chickens, turkeys, rabbits and squirrels, are often in the market; also cysters, in sealed cans. Yet, with all these gratifications for the palate, it is more than probable that, all these long days, some of our people have not tasted of them for want of money to buy them: Many a person gave freely of what he had in the siege of December, and while on guard at Lawrence lost all of his crops at home. As a people we are bankrupt. Remittances from the East are lost, or the same thing to us, retained, with letters, by the officious meddlers in government pay in a neighboring state. Money drafts are months on their way, when twelve or fourteen days is all-sufficient time for the journey. The people in the territory are at no time safe. The cabin of the lone settler on the prairie is momentarily exposed to attack, yet no light comes from Congress none from its head.

This winter will be ever remembered for its unprecedented severity, and for that wicked use of power by the administration which would make the career of Caligula magnanimous and spotless in the comparison. Those who sit in sealed houses, and by warm hearth-stones, no foes without or fears within, can never realize, as we in Kansas, on the exposed outposts, what a winter this has been to us. Our senses sharpened by the actual necessities of life, and our perceptions quickened by their unsleeping vigilance and constant action, none better than we can realize the terrible infamy which will cling to those who have been the chief abettors in filling up this cup of evil. Wrong-doing has marked their pathway, and shame will be their reward. Yet there is a golden bow of promise over us, the bright rainbow of hope; and, in characters clear as the sunlight and radiant as truth, beneath the arch encircling the snow-clad hills and prairies, and the sad dwellers among them, is written : "The days of the tyrant are numbered. He will hasten on his own downfall."

CHAPTER XIII.

THE WINTER IN THE TERRITORY

STATE LEGISLATURE.

26th. The men were early at their work this morning upon the little cabins in the forts. Stoves are to be put in them as soon as finished, and then soldiers will board in them as in times of war. The largest fort, which is at the foot of Massachusettsstreet, commanding the way to the river, is of circular form, about five feet high, with a broad walk upon the top, perhaps four feet wide. It is about one hundred feet in diameter, and is built of earth and timbers. A sentinel is continually pacing the rounds upon the top.

The general and other officers are at all times busy in the council-room. Scarcely six weeks have passed since Gov. Shannon's famous treaty; he has now gone home, and the plan seems to be to do what is to be done in his absence, while Woodson is acting governor. He, having been instrumental in getting the Platte County Rifle Boys to come to the invasion of Lawrence, will not hesitate to do anything now which a Missouri mob asks of him.

In the evening T. was asleep on the lounge, E. and I were sitting in the bright moonlight, when the loud booming of cannon, the shouts of men, and the barking of dogs, startled us. With the door open we could see no strange thing, but the noise continued. It could not be Missourians, for they would not attack the town so early in the evening, or on such a bright night.

T. awakened, and as we gave him no satisfactory answer to his question of "What's that?" he rose hastily, saying, “I believe those hounds have come." His pistol-belt was soon fastened on, and, as he left the door, he said, "Good-by, if I don't see you

again." He was hastening away, when I said to him, "You must let me know somehow what is doing."

Yes, I will send you word, if I cannot come myself."

I

As through the still night-air these words were borne to me, the young, city-bred youth, whose heart beats warmly for freedomfreedom for all, was far down the hill-side. Home friends were continually writing him, "Why don't you leave that God-forsaken country, and come home?" With the earliest settlers he embarked in the holy cause of saving Kansas to freedom, and with those principles deeply implanted in his nature, in the full vigor and strength of early manhood, with hope mounting high, he has buckled on the armor of a righteous self-defence, and with the watchword of victory he is ever ready for active service. smile often at his enthusiasm of manner as he says, "I used often to go to the theatre at home, life was so dull; but here we have a new scene in the drama every day." I sympathize in the feeling, and have half a mind that all of us, living where we actually realize the truth, "Ye know not what a day may bring forth,” would find New England paths dull and tame. Like him, there are many other young men, who, with unchecked aspirations and unblasted hopes, have in the trials of the hour put on the soberness, the prudence of life at its noon. Side by side with furrowed brows, and dark locks silvered o'er by time's fingers, they have prepared for the onset. Our people have grown strong in themselves under difficulties. Young men of education and talent, who sought their home here, have put forth new powers. Stripped of all the artificial accompaniment of old towns, driven by the circumstances of the times to exertions almost superhuman, the happy brightening up of unused faculties, and the quickening of relaxed energies, have followed; whereas, amid the hum-drum paths of the old homes, surrounded by their gloss, gilding, and effeminacy, they would have passed along life's even ways, attaining only middling ranks in their professions.

The women, too, of Kansas have shared in this quickening of the perceptive and reflective faculties - the effect of their sur roundings. Some, who would have floated gayly down life's smoother tides, amid the glitter, the false show of society, bound down

by an iron rule to King Custom's absurd ways, and would have asked not the great questions of life, of its import, of its destiny, have learned that "life is real, life is earnest." In the simplicity of nature, in a new country, there is a mutual dependence between all, which is not realized at home, and the very needs of humanity demand that one should live, not for self, but out of self, and in realizing the beauty of the poem,

"We live in deeds, not years,

In thoughts, not breaths, in feelings,

Not in figures on a dial. He lives most

Who thinks most - feels the noblest acts the best."

,,

With a constant use of faculties and sympathies, the useless ornament of a city drawing-room becomes the strong, the active, earnest woman.

The hours were passing, the noise down street had ceased, and T. returned. He laughed as he said "No Missourians yet. The company have returned from Easton, and the boys were giving them a salute." He said, moreover, that they had speeches, and went through certain military manoeuvres, and finished off with a supper prepared for them. They encountered no difficulties by the way; the enemy having heard of their proposed visit, fled to Missouri, leaving a clear field. One of the men, who has been threatened very grievously by them, they found so strongly barricaded in his house, that the enemy could never have taken him. His wife and six sons compose the family. The old lady has all the fire, the spirit of a Spartan mother.

Jan. 27th. Still another snow. No security from the murderous midnight assassin can be more sure than the heavily drifting snows which cover the whole country. Plans of a guerilla warfare had been laid through the whole border. The murder of Brown and the invasion at Easton were the forerunners of intended attacks upon the whole territory. The leaders of the free-state party being destroyed, they calculated upon an easy victory over the remainder. A letter of Atchison, written just before the murder of Brown, reveals the plan. The following are a few extracts from it.