7–13 January 1856

I fancied in this fierce cold weather — mer- cury varying from 20° to 30° below zero for the last week — that Illinois lands would be at a discount, and the agent, who at Dixon was sell- ing great tracts, would be better advised to keep them for milder days, since a hundred miles of prairie in such days as these are not worth the poorest shed or cellar in the towns. But my easy landlord assured me "we had no cold weather in Illinois, only now and then Indian summer and cool nights." He looked merrily at his window panes, opaque with a stratum of frost, and said that his was a fashionable first- class hotel, with window lights of ground glass.