house and stole bonds, notes, and clothing estimated to be worth $2000. Mr.
Douglas had just been to Sedalia, where he had procured a good supply of
clothing. The soldiers pointed Mr. Douglas's own gun, which had never been
known to miss fire before, at his head; but it failed to go off. Our house
was not molested. The next day these same men caught one of Mr. Douglas's
boys, made him take off his shoes, hat, and all his other clothing, except
his underwear, and turned him loose. In this condition, he had to go about
a quarter of a mile before reaching home.

It was probably some time after these events that the bushwhackers came to
our house and wanted Mother to cook a meal for a dozen men. Mother was
hardly able to be out of bed, but my sister Mehala, thinking that they were
Union soldiers, said, "Mother, I can cook for them." "Well, Mehala," Mother
said, "if you can, you may go ahead." Mother helped all she could. They
baked two large pones of corn-bread in the oldfashioned fireplace and fried
plenty of fresh beef. Although the soldiers had ordered food for a dozen
men, only two of them came. One of them took the provisions and the other
guarded the house until he thought we would have no chance to report them.
Then they went to the home of a neighbor and with much bad language said
that Mother was Union and therefore pretended to be sick and did not want
to cook for them.

During the war, things we had to buy were very high and things we had to
sell brought only a trifle. Father sold corn to the Union soldiers for 25
cents a bushel. In imagination I can see the government wagons coming to
haul the corn away to their camp. The beds of the wagons were somewhat like
those used today, only they sloped outward on either side until they would
hold more than twice as much as our ordinary farm wagons.

At that time, flour cost $10.00 and upward, a barrel, calico from 35 to 45