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Buffalo and that it would be necessary for us to stay over night.  Mr. Maldrum telegraphed to his family to assure them of his safe landing and we returned with the farmer to his home and had supper.  We ate with the family and had chicken and dumplings.  During my traveling career I have had many meals in out of the way places where the cooking was questionable, and liked it, but this was a new experience.  The chicken must have been an old rooster of many hard battles as he was so tough as to be almost unfit for food.  As for the dumplings, they would have made good cement building blocks.  I could see that Mr. Meldrum was distressed but trying to be polite.  I asked him if he felt hungry after the very hearty lunch we had had in the balloon.  He replied that he was not very hungry but would drink a cup of coffee.  Our host, being a hard working, healthy man, helped himself to the food on our plates and ate it all without so much as a wink.  I cannot understand to this day how he was able to do it but he succeeded.  After supper we sat around the [[strikethrough]] family [[/strikethrough]] table for a while talking with the family after which we were shown our room.  The bed was one of the old fashion four poster types with a top piece; the mattress was a hard affair that stood high in the middle.  It was necessary to hold on or we would roll out.  By morning we were both worn out and hungry.

After washing in the tin basin and drying on a wet, dirty towel and family had already used, we had breakfast which consisted of two eggs fried in grease, a stack of pancakes and coffee.  The butter was impossible to eat.  We struggled through the meal and hurried off to get our train.  I know should not find amusement in such a situation but the expression on Meldrum's face at times was a study.  He was bored beyond