WHEN the writer was a boy, where Pana now stands was an unbroken wilderness, and the land belonged to the government, and was subject to entry at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre; but that had to be paid in gold or silver, as the paper money of the country was so uncertain. But the people doubted whether the land would ever be worth the money. Tom. Bell lived at Bell’s Grove, West, and the Abbot’s and a few others lived on the head of Beck’s Creek, East; but the prairie where Pana stands there was nothing to show that man had ever been there, not a tree or shrub was there; but the deer and wolves raised their young there, and the rattlesnake had his own way; only when the prairie burned over in warm weather, then thousands of them burned to death. When the men were first breaking up the prairie sod they would tell of killing twenty to thirty rattlesnakes in one day.