“It wouldn’t surprise me,” said Ollie one day, “to find the man in the moon living here in a sod house.”

Perhaps a majority—­certainly a great many—­of all these people lived in houses of this kind.  Ollie had never seen anything of the sort before, and he became greatly interested in them.  The second day we camped near one for dinner.

“You see,” said Jack, “a man gets a farm, takes half his front yard and builds a house with it.  He gains space, though, because the place he peels in the yard will do for flowerbeds, and the roof and sides of his house are excellent places to grow radishes, beets, and similar vegetables.”

“Why not other things besides radishes and beets?” asked Ollie.

“Oh, other things would grow all right, but radishes and beets seem to be the natural things for sod-house growing.  You can take hold of the lower end and pull ’em from the inside, you know, Ollie.”

“I don’t believe it, Uncle Jack,” said Ollie, stoutly.  “Ask the rancher,” answered Jack.  “If you’re ever at dinner in a sod house, and want another radish, just reach up and pull one down through the roof, tops and all.  Then you’re sure they’re fresh.  I’d like to keep a summer hotel in a sod house.  I’d advertise ‘fresh vegetables pulled at the table.’”

“I’m going to ask the man about sod houses,” returned Ollie.  He went up to where the owner of the house was sitting outside, and said: 

“Will you please tell me how you make a sod house?”

“Yes,” said the man, smiling.  “Thinking of making one?”

“Well, not just now,” replied Ollie.  “But.  I’d like to know about them.  I might want to build one—­sometime,” he added, doubtfully.

“Well,” said the man, “it’s this way:  First we plough up a lot of the tough prairie sod with a large plough called a breaking-plough, intended especially for ploughing the prairie the first time.  This turns it over in a long, even, unbroken strip, some fourteen or sixteen inches wide and three or four inches thick.  We cut this up into pieces two or three feet long, take them to the place where we are building the house, on a stone-boat or a sled, and use them in laying up the walls in just about the same way that bricks are used in making a brick house.  Openings are left for the doors and windows, and either a shingle or sod roof put on.  If it’s sod, rough boards are first laid on poles, and then sods put on them like shingles.  I’ve got a sod roof on mine, you see.”

Ollie was looking at the grass and weeds growing on the top and sides of the house.  They must have made a pretty sight when they were green and thrifty earlier in the season, but they were dry and withered now.

“Do you ever have prairie-fires on your roofs?” asked Ollie, with a smile.

“Oh, they do burn off sometimes,” answered the man.  “Catch from the chimney, you know.  Did you ever see a hay fire?”