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They
complained too that the health of their children suffered more. It was
the fact that the damp winds of March and April brought with them more
mortal sickness than the sharpest freezing weather.
The frequent burials discouraged and depressed the hardiest spirits; but
the general hopefulness of human nature was well illustrated by the fact
that even the most provident were found unfurnished with burial
necessaries, and as a result they were often driven to the most
melancholy makeshifts.
The usual expedient adopted was to cut a log of some eight or nine feet
long, and slitting the bark longitudinally, strip it off in two
half-cylinders. These, placed around the body of the deceased and bound
firmly together with withs made of alburnum, formed a rough sort of
tubular coffin, which surviving relatives and friends, with a little
show of black crape, could follow to the hole or bit of ditch dug to
receive it in the wet ground of the prairie. The name of the deceased,
his age, the date of his death, and the surrounding landmarks were all
registered with care.


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