Excerpt from Frontier Sketches<br><br>As they grew up and Jake came of age, they became ambitious to have land of their own. They had helped clear grub, break up, fence and cultivate one hundred acres of land on their father's patent in Mound Creek Vallev, and now it was high time to begin for themselves.<br><br>Up to this period the broad Wisconsin, unfordable except in the driest seasons, had acted as a check to the tide of Northern and Western settlement in their district. There was much choice land upon the other side, and some two years before Jake was twenty-one the boys had been across the river hunting, and had staked and blazed claims for themselves - two quart ers - upon one of which they had subsequently erected a snug log cabin, which they had covered with boards of their own make.<br><br>They spent the greater part of two winters in this cabin, hunting and splitting rails during the short days, and during the spring, summer and autumn while working on their father's place, they watched jealously for any movement toward a settlement on the other side.<br><br>The winter before Jake came of age several other claims were taken, above their own, on the west side of the river, on Sac Prairie, one of the most fertile prairies of the state. The boys now determined to move over finally so soon as they should gather the spring crops upon their father's place.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.