If we could have had it to get us clothes it would have helped us,
as we were all poorly clad. Some of the younger children went barefooted
all winter a number of times. I often saw their little barefooted tracks
in the snow.
As we had no team we had to get along the best we could. Father changed
work with Mr. Pardee: he came with his oxen and plowed for us. Father
had to work two days for one, to pay him. In this way we got some plowing
done. There was a man by the name of Stockman who lived near
Dearbornville. He had a pair of young oxen. Being a carpenter, by trade,
he worked at Detroit some of the time. He would let father use his oxen
some of the time for their keeping, and that he might break them better,
as they were not thoroughly broken. They would have been some profit to
us it they had not crippled me.
One day I was drawing logs with them. I had hitched the chain around a
log and they started. I hallooed, "Whoa!" but they wouldn't stop. They
swung the log against me, caught my leg between the log they were drawing
and the sharp end of another log and had me fast. It cut the calf of my
leg nearly in two, and tore the flesh from the bone, but did not break
it.
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