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diff --git a/29129.txt b/29129.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b144f98 --- /dev/null +++ b/29129.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6775 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Boy Settlers, by Noah Brooks, Illustrated +by W. A. Rogers + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Boy Settlers + A Story of Early Times in Kansas + + +Author: Noah Brooks + + + +Release Date: June 15, 2009 [eBook #29129] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOY SETTLERS*** + + +E-text prepared by Roger Frank and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 29129-h.htm or 29129-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29129/29129-h/29129-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29129/29129-h.zip) + + + + + +THE BOY SETTLERS + + * * * * * + +In Uniform Style. + + THE BOY SETTLERS. By NOAH BROOKS. $1.25. + THE BOY EMIGRANTS. By NOAH BROOKS. $1.25. + A NEW MEXICO DAVID. By C. F. LUMMIS. $1.25. + + * * * * * + + +[Illustration: SURE ENOUGH, THERE THEY WERE, TWENTY-FIVE OR THIRTY +INDIANS.] + + +THE BOY SETTLERS + +A Story of Early Times in Kansas + +by + +NOAH BROOKS + +Illustrated by W. A. Rogers + + + + + + + +New York +Charles Scribner's Sons +1891 + +Copyright, 1891, +by Charles Scribner's Sons. + + + + +TO + +John Greenleaf Whittier + +Whose patriotic songs were the inspiration of the prototypes of + +THE BOY SETTLERS + +This little book is affectionately inscribed + + + + +CONTENTS + + CHAPTER PAGE + I. The Settlers, and Whence They Came. 1 + II. The Fire Spreads. 9 + III. On the Disputed Territory. 20 + IV. Among the Delawares. 36 + V. Tidings from the Front. 53 + VI. Westward Ho! 62 + VII. At the Dividing of the Ways. 72 + VIII. The Settlers at Home. 85 + IX. Setting the Stakes. 95 + X. Drawing the First Furrow. 105 + XI. An Indian Trail. 116 + XII. House-Building. 126 + XIII. Lost! 134 + XIV. More House-Building. 150 + XV. Play Comes After Work. 158 + XVI. A Great Disaster. 181 + XVII. The Wolf at the Door. 187 + XVIII. Discouragement. 200 + XIX. Down the Big Muddy. 215 + XX. Stranded Near Home. 236 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + TO FACE PAGE + + SURE ENOUGH, THERE THEY WERE, TWENTY-FIVE OR THIRTY + INDIANS. _Frontispiece_ + + IN CAMP AT QUINDARO. THE POEM OF "THE KANSAS + EMIGRANTS." 34 + + THE YANKEE EMIGRANT. 54 + + OSCAR WAS PUT UP HIGH ON THE STUMP OF A TREE, AND, + VIOLIN IN HAND, "RAISED THE TUNE." 60 + + THE POLLS AT LIBERTYVILLE. THE WOBURN MAN IS + "HOISTED" OVER THE CABIN. 70 + + THE SETTLERS' FIRST HOME IN THE DESERTED CABIN. 90 + + YOUNKINS ARGUED THAT SETTLERS WERE ENTITLED TO ALL + THEY COULD GET AND HOLD. 102 + + SANDY SEIZED A HUGE PIECE OF THE FRESHLY-TURNED SOD, + AND WAVING IT OVER HIS HEAD CRIED, "THREE CHEERS FOR + THE FIRST SOD OF BLEEDING KANSAS!" 106 + + MAKING "SHAKES" WITH A "FROW." 128 + + FILLING IN THE CHINKS IN THE WALLS OF THE LOG-CABIN. 142 + + LOST! 146 + + THEY WERE FEASTING THEMSELVES ON ONE OF THE DELICIOUS + WATERMELONS THAT NOW SO PLENTIFULLY DOTTED THEIR OWN + CORN-FIELD. 160 + + HE GENTLY TOUCHED THE ANIMAL WITH THE TOE OF HIS BOOT + AND CRIED, "ALL BY MY OWN SELF." 176 + + A GREAT DISASTER. 188 + + THE RETREAT TO BATTLES'S. 194 + + "HOME, SWEET HOME." 204 + + + + +THE BOY SETTLERS. + +CHAPTER I. + +The Settlers, and Whence They Came. + + +There were five of them, all told; three boys and two men. I have +mentioned the boys first because there were more of them, and we shall +hear most from them before we have got through with this truthful +tale. They lived in the town of Dixon, on the Rock River, in Lee +County, Illinois. Look on the map, and you will find this place at a +point where the Illinois Central Railroad crosses the Rock; for this +is a real town with real people. Nearly sixty years ago, when there +were Indians all over that region of the country, and the red men were +numerous where the flourishing States of Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin +are now, John Dixon kept a little ferry at the point of which I am now +speaking, and it was known as Dixon's Ferry. Even when he was not an +old man, Dixon was noted for his long and flowing white hair, and the +Indians called him Na-chu-sa, "the White-haired." In 1832 the Sac +tribe of Indians, with their chief Black Hawk, rose in rebellion +against the Government, and then there happened what is now called the +Black Hawk war. + +In that war many men who afterwards became famous in the history of +the United States were engaged in behalf of the government. One of +these was Zachary Taylor, afterwards better known as "Rough and +Ready," who fought bravely in the Mexican war and subsequently became +President of the United States. Another was Robert Anderson, who, at +the beginning of the war of the Rebellion, in 1861, commanded the +Union forces in Fort Sumter when it was first fired upon. Another was +Jefferson Davis, who, in the course of human events, became President +of the Southern Confederacy. A fourth man, destined to be more famous +than any of the others, was Abraham Lincoln. The first three of these +were officers in the army of the United States. Lincoln was at first a +private soldier, but was afterwards elected captain of his company, +with whom he had come to the rescue of the white settlers from the +lower part of the State. + +The war did not last long, and there was not much glory gained by +anybody in it. Black Hawk was beaten, and that country had peace ever +after. For many years, and even unto this day, I make no doubt, the +early settlers of the Rock River country loved to tell stories of the +Black Hawk war, of their own sufferings, exploits, hardships, and +adventures. Father Dixon, as he was called, did not choose to talk +much about himself, for he was a modest old gentleman, and was not +given, as they used to say, to "blowing his own horn," but his memory +was a treasure-house of delightful anecdotes and reminiscences of +those old times; and young and old would sit around the comfortable +stove of a country store, during a dull winter evening, drinking in +tales of Indian warfare and of the "old settlers" that had been handed +down from generation to generation. + +It is easy to see how boys brought up in an atmosphere like this, rich +in traditions of the long-past in which the early settlement of the +country figured, should become imbued with the same spirit of +adventure that had brought their fathers from the older States to this +new region of the West. Boys played at Indian warfare over the very +ground on which they had learned to believe the Sacs and Foxes had +skirmished years and years before. They loved to hear of Black Hawk +and his brother, the Prophet, as he was called; and I cannot tell you +with what reverence they regarded Father Dixon, the white-haired old +man who had actually talked and traded with the famous Indians, and +whose name had been given him as a title of respect by the great Black +Hawk himself. + +Among the boys who drank in this sort of lore were Charlie and +Alexander Howell and their cousin Oscar Bryant. Charlie, when he had +arrived at his eighteenth birthday, esteemed himself a man, ready to +put away childish things; and yet, in his heart, he dearly loved the +traditions of the Indian occupation of the country, and wished that he +had been born earlier, so that he might have had a share in the +settlement of the Rock River region, its reclamation from the +wilderness, and the chase of the wild Indian. As for Alexander, +commonly known as "Sandy," he had worn out a thick volume of Cooper's +novels before he was fifteen years old, at which interesting point in +his career I propose to introduce him to you. Oscar was almost exactly +as many years and days old as his cousin. But two boys more unlike in +appearance could not be found anywhere in a long summer day. Sandy was +short, stubbed, and stocky in build. His face was florid and freckled, +and his hair and complexion, like his name, were sandy. Oscar was +tall, slim, wiry, with a long, oval face, black hair, and so lithe in +his motions that he was invariably cast for the part of the leading +Indian in all games that required an aboriginal character. + +Mr. Howell carried on a transportation business, until the railroads +came into the country and his occupation was gone. Then he began to +consider seriously the notion of going further west with his boys to +get for them the same chances of early forestalling the settlement of +the country that he had had in Illinois. In the West, at least in +those days, nearly everybody was continually looking for a yet +further West to which they might emigrate. Charlie Howell was now a +big and willing, good-natured boy; he ought to be striking out for +himself and getting ready to earn his own living. At least, so his +father thought. + +Mr. Bryant was engaged in a profitable business, and he had no idea of +going out into another West for himself or his boy. Oscar was likely +to be a scholar, a lawyer, or a minister, perhaps. Even at the age of +fifteen, he had written "a piece" which the editor of the Dixon +_Telegraph_ had thought worthy of the immortality of print in his +columns. + +But about this time, the Northern States were deeply stirred by the +struggle in the new Territory of Kansas to decide whether freedom or +slavery should be established therein. This was in 1854 and +thereabout. The Territory had been left open and unoccupied for a long +time. Now settlers were pouring into it from adjacent States, and the +question whether freedom should be the rule, or whether slave-holding +was to be tolerated, became a very important one. Missouri and +Arkansas, being the States nearest to Kansas, and holding slavery to +be a necessity, furnished the largest number of emigrants who went to +vote in favor of bringing slavery into the new Territory; but others +of the same way of thinking came from more distant States, even as far +off as South Carolina, all bent on voting for slavery in the laws +that were to be made. For the most part, these people from the slave +States did not go prepared to make their homes in Kansas or Nebraska; +for some went to the adjoining Territory of Nebraska, which was also +ready to have slavery voted up or down. The newcomers intended to stay +just long enough to vote and then return to their own homes. + +The people of the free States of the North heard of all this with much +indignation. They had always supposed that the new Territories were to +be free from slavery. They saw that if slavery should be allowed +there, by and by, when the two Territories would become States, they +would be slave States, and then there would be more slave States than +free States in the Union. So they held meetings, made speeches, and +passed resolutions, denouncing this sort of immigration as wrong and +wicked. Then immigrants from Iowa, Illinois, and other Northern +States, even as far off as Massachusetts, sold their homes and +household goods and started for the Promised Land, as many of them +thought it to be. For the men in Kansas who were opposed to slavery +wrote and sent far and wide papers and pamphlets, setting forth in +glowing colors the advantages of the new and beautiful country beyond +the Missouri River, open to the industry and enterprise of everybody. +Soon the roads and highways of Iowa were dotted with white-topped +wagons of immigrants journeying to Kansas, and long lines of +caravans, with families and with small knots of men, stretched their +way across the country nearest to the Territory. + +Some of these passed through Dixon, and the boys gazed with wonder at +the queer inscriptions that were painted on the canvas covers of the +wagons; they longed to go with the immigrants, and taste the sweets of +a land which was represented to be full of wild flowers, game in great +abundance, and fine streams, and well-wooded hills not far away from +the water. They had heard their elders talk of the beauties of Kansas, +and of the great outrage that was to be committed on that fair land by +carrying slavery into it; and although they did not know much about +the politics of the case, they had a vague notion that they would like +to have a hand in the exciting business that was going on in Kansas. + +Both parties to this contest thought they were right. Men who had been +brought up in the slave States believed that slavery was a good +thing--good for the country, good for the slave-owner, and even good +for the slave. They could not understand how anybody should think +differently from them. But, on the other hand, those who had never +owned slaves, and who had been born and brought up in the free States, +could not be brought to look upon slavery as anything but a very +wicked thing. For their part, they were willing (at least, some of +them were) to fight rather than consent that the right of one man to +own another man should be recognized in the Territories of Kansas and +Nebraska. Some of these started at once for the debatable land; others +helped their neighbors to go, and many others stayed at home and +talked about it. + +Mrs. Bryant, Oscar's mother, said: "Dear me, I am tired and sick of +hearing about 'bleeding Kansas.' I do wish, husband, you would find +something else to talk about before Oscar. You have got him so worked +up that I shouldn't be the least bit surprised if he were to start off +with some of those tired-looking immigrants that go traipsing through +the town day by day." Mrs. Bryant was growing anxious, now that her +husband was so much excited about the Kansas-Nebraska struggle, as it +was called, he could think of nothing else. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE FIRE SPREADS. + + +One fine morning in May, Mr. Bryant was standing at his front gate +watching for his brother-in-law, Mr. Howell, to come down the street. + +He held a newspaper in his hand, and with this, loosely rolled, he was +impatiently tapping on the gate as Mr. Howell drew near. Evidently +something had happened to disturb him. + +"See here, Aleck," he exclaimed, as soon as his brother-in-law was +within the sound of his voice, "I can stand this sort of thing no +longer. I'm bound to go to Kansas. I've been thinking it over, and I +have about made up my mind to go. Brubaker will take my store and the +good-will of the concern. Oscar is wild to go, and his mother is +perfectly able to take care of the house while I am getting ready for +her to come out. What d'ye say? Will you go too?" + +"Well," said Mr. Howell, slowly, "you nearly take my breath away! +What's happened to stir you up so?" + +"Just listen to this!" cried the other, "just listen!" and, unfolding +his newspaper, he read, with glowing cheeks and kindling eyes, an +account of an attack made by some of the "pro-slavery men," as they +were named, on a party of free-State immigrants who had attempted to +cross the river near Kansas City. His voice trembled with excitement, +and when he had finished reading, he asked his companion what he +thought of that. + +Mr. Howell looked pensively down the street, now embowered with the +foliage of early summer, noted the peaceful aspect of the village, and +the tranquil picture which gardens, cottages, and sauntering groups of +school-children presented, and then said slowly, "I never was much of +a hand at shooting, Charles, leastways, shooting at folks; and I don't +know that I could take steady aim at a man, even if I knew he was a +Border Ruffian out gunning for me. But I'm with you, Charles. Charlie +and Sandy can do a heap sight better in Kansas, after things get +settled, than they can here. This place is too old; there's too much +competition, and the boys will not have any show if they stay here. +But what does Amanda say?" + +Now, Amanda was Mr. Bryant's wife, Mr. Aleck Howell's sister. When +Aleck asked this question, the two men looked at each other for a +moment, queerly and without speaking. + +"Well, she'll hate to part with Oscar; he's the apple of her eye, as +it were. But I guess she will listen to reason. When I read this piece +in the paper to her this morning, at the breakfast-table, she was as +mad as a wet hen. As for Oscar, he's so fired up about it that he is +down in the wood-shed chopping wood to blow off steam. Hear him?" And +Mr. Bryant laughed quietly, notwithstanding his rising anger over the +news of the day. + +At that moment Sandy came whooping around the corner, intent on +overtaking a big yellow dog, his constant companion,--Bose by +name,--who bounded along far in advance of the boy. "See here, Sandy," +said his uncle, "how would you like to go to Kansas with your father, +Oscar, Charlie, and myself?" + +"To Kansas? shooting buffaloes, deer, Indians, and all that? To +Kansas? Oh, come, now, Uncle Charles, you don't mean it." + +"But I do mean it, my laddie," said the elder man, affectionately +patting the freckled cheek of the lad. "I do mean it, and if you can +persuade your father to go along and take you and Charlie with him, +we'll make up a party--just we five--that will scare the Border +Ruffians 'way into the middle of next year." Then, with a more serious +air, he added, "This is a fight for freedom, my boy, and every man and +every boy who believes in God and Liberty can find a chance to help. +I'm sure _we_ can." This he said with a certain sparkle of his eye +that may have meant mischief to any Border Ruffian that might have +been there to see and hear. + +As for Sandy, he turned two or three hand-springs by way of relieving +his feelings; then, having once more assured himself that the two men +had serious thoughts of migrating to Kansas, he rushed off to the +wood-shed to carry the wonderful news to Oscar. Dropping his axe, the +lad listened with widened eyes to the story that Sandy had to tell. + +"Do you know, Sandy," he said, with an air of great wisdom, "I thought +there was something in the wind. Oh, I never saw father so roused as +he was when he read that story in the Chicago _Press and Tribune_ this +morning. Why, I thought he'd just get up and howl when he had read it +out to mother. Jimmini! Do you really suppose that he will go? And +take us? And Uncle Aleck? Oh, wouldn't that be too everlastingly bully +for anything?" Oscar, as you will see, was given to the use of slang, +especially when under great excitement. The two boys rushed back to +the gate, where the brothers-in-law were still talking eagerly and in +undertones. + +"If your mother and Aunt Amanda will consent, I guess we will go," +said Mr. Bryant, with a smile on his face as he regarded the flushed +cheeks and eager eyes of Sandy and Oscar. Sandy's father added: "And +I'll answer for your mother, my son. She and I have talked this thing +over many a time, more on your account and Charlie's than for the sake +of 'bleeding Kansas,' however. I'm bound to say that. Every man is in +honor bound to do his duty by the country and by the good cause; but +I have got to look after my boys first." And the father lovingly laid +his hand on Sandy's sturdy shoulder. "Do you think you could fight, if +the worst comes to the worst, Sandy, boy?" + +Of course the lad protested confidently that he could fight; certainly +he could protect his rights and his father's rights, even with a gun, +if that should be found necessary. But he admitted that, on the whole, +he would rather shoot buffaloes and antelope, both of which species of +large game he had already learned were tolerably plentiful in Kansas. + +"Just think of it, Oscar, we might have some real Indian-fighting out +there, like that Father Dixon and the rest of the old settlers had in +the time of the Black Hawk war." + +His father assured him, however, that there was no longer any danger +from the red man in Kansas. The wild Indians were now far out on the +frontier, beyond the region to which emigrants would probably go in +search of homestead lands for settlement. Sandy looked relieved at +this explanation. He was not anxious for fighting with anybody. Fun +was more to his liking. + +The two mothers, when they were informed of the decision of the male +members of the family, made very little opposition to the emigration +scheme. In fact, Mrs. Howell had really felt for some time past that +her boys would be better provided for in a new country. She had been +one of the "old settlers" of Dixon, having been brought out from the +interior of New York when she and her brother were small children. She +had the same spirit of adventure that he had, and, although she +remembered very well the privations and the discomforts of those early +days, it was more with amusement than sorrow that she recalled them to +mind, now that they were among the traditions of long-past years. The +two young Howells were never weary of hearing their mother tell of the +time when she killed a wildcat with her father's rifle, or of her +walking fifteen miles and back to buy herself a bonnet-ribbon to wear +to her first ball in the court-house. Now her silent influence made it +easier for the Kansas Exodus (as they already called their scheme) to +be accepted all around. + +The determination of the two families to migrate made some stir in the +town. It was yet a small place, and everybody knew every other body's +business. The Bryants and Howells were among the "old families," and +their momentous step created a little ripple of excitement among their +friends and acquaintances. The boys enjoyed the talk and the gossip +that arose around them, and already considered themselves heroes in a +small way. With envious eyes and eager faces, their comrades +surrounded them, wherever they went, asking questions about their +outfit, their plans, and their future movements. Every boy in Dixon +looked on the three prospective boy settlers as the most fortunate of +all their young playfellows. + +"I wish my father would catch the 'Kansas fever,'" said Hiram Fender, +excitedly. "Don't you suppose your father could give it to him, +Charlie? Do you suppose your uncle would take me along if Dad would +let me go? Oh, wouldn't that be just gaudy, if I could go! Then there +would be four of us boys. Try it on him." + +But the two families resolutely attended to their own business, asking +help from nobody, and not even so much as hinting to anybody that it +would be a good thing for others to go with them to the Promised Land. +The three boys were speedily in the midst of preparations for their +migration. It was now well along in the middle of May. If they were to +take up land claims in Kansas and get in a crop, they had no time to +spare. The delightful excitement of packing, of buying arms and +ammunition, and of winding up all the small concerns of their life in +Dixon made the days pass swiftly by. There were all the details of +tents for camping-out, provisions for the march, and rough clothing +and walking gear for the new life beyond to be looked after. + +Some of the notions of the boys, in regard to what was needed and what +was to be expected from the land beyond, were rather crude. And +perhaps their fathers were not in all cases so wise as they thought +themselves. The boys, however, cherished the idea that absolutely +everything they should require in Kansas must be carried from +Illinois. "Why," said the practical Mr. Howell, "if we cannot buy +ploughs, cattle, and seed, cheaper in Missouri than we can here, we +can at least save the labor and cost of transportation. We don't want +to haul a year's provisions, either. We expect to raise something to +eat, don't we?" + +Charlie, to whom this remonstrance was addressed, replied, "Well, of +course we can raise some garden truck, and I suppose we can buy bacon +and flour cheaper in Missouri than here." + +"Then there's the game," interrupted Oscar and Sandy, both in one +breath. "Governor Robinson's book says that the country is swarming +with game," added Sandy, excitedly. + +The boys had devoured a little book by Mr. Robinson, the free-State +Governor of Kansas, in which the richness of the Promised Land was +glowingly set forth. + +"Much time we shall have to shoot buffaloes and antelope when we are +breaking up the sod and planting corn," Mr. Howell answered with a +shade of sarcasm in his voice. + +"And we may have to fire at bigger game than either of those," added +Mr. Bryant, grimly. + +"Border Ruffians?" asked Sandy, with a feeble attempt at a grin. His +mother shuddered and hastily went out of the room. The Kansas scheme +seemed no longer pleasant to her, when she read the dreadful stories +of violence and bloodshed with which some of the Western newspapers +were teeming. But it was settled that most of the tools needed for +farming could be bought better in Missouri than in Illinois; the long +haul would be saved, and the horses with which they were to start +could be exchanged for oxen to good advantage when they reached "the +river." They had already adopted the common phrase, "the river," for +the Missouri River, then generally used by people emigrating +westward. + +"But perhaps the Missourians will not sell you anything when they know +that you are free-State men," suggested Mrs. Bryant, timidly, for this +was a family council. + +"Oh, well," answered Mr. Howell, sturdily, "I'll risk that. I never +saw a man yet with anything to sell who wouldn't sell it when the +money was shaken in his face. The newspapers paint those border men +pretty black, I know; but if they stop to ask a man's politics before +they make a bargain with him, they must be queer cattle. They are more +than human or less than human, not Americans at all, if they do +business in that way." In the end they found that Mr. Howell was +entirely right. + +All was settled at last, and that, too, in some haste, for the season +was rapidly advancing when planting must be attended to, if they were +to plant that year for the fall harvest. From the West they heard +reports of hosts of people pouring into the new Territory, of land +being in great demand, and of the best claims near the Missouri being +taken by early emigrants. They must be in a hurry if they were to get +a fair chance with the rest and a fair start on their farm,--a farm +yet existing only in their imagination. + +Their wagon, well stored with clothing and provisions, a few books, +Oscar's violin, a medicine chest, powder, shot, and rifle-balls, and +an assortment of odds and ends,--the wagon, so long a magical +repository of hopes and the most delightful anticipations, was ready +at last. It stood at the side gate of Mr. Bryant's home, with a "spike +team" (two horses at the pole, and one horse for a leader) harnessed. +It was a serious, almost solemn, moment. Now that the final parting +had come, the wrench with which the two families were to be broken up +seemed harder than any of the members had expected. The two mothers, +bravely keeping up smiling faces, went about the final touches of +preparations for the lads' departure and the long journey of their +husbands. + +Mr. Howell mounted the wagon with Sandy by his side; Mr. Bryant took +his seat with the other two boys in an open buggy, which they were to +drive to "the river" and there trade for a part of their outfit. Fond +and tearful kisses had been exchanged and farewells spoken. They drove +off into the West. The two women stood at the gate, gazing after them +with tear-dimmed eyes as long as they were in sight; and when the +little train disappeared behind the first swale of the prairie, they +burst into tears and went into the house which was now left unto them +desolate. + +It was a quiet party that drove over the prairie that bright and +beautiful morning. The two boys in the buggy spoke occasionally in +far-off-sounding voices about indifferent things that attracted their +attention as they drove along. Mr. Howell held the reins, with a +certain stern sense of duty on his dark and handsome face. Sandy sat +silently by his side, the big tears coursing down his freckled +cheeks. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +ON THE DISPUTED TERRITORY. + + +The straggling, unkempt, and forlorn town of Parkville, Missouri, was +crowded with strangers when the emigrants arrived there after a long +and toilsome drive through Iowa. They had crossed the Mississippi from +Illinois into Iowa, at Fulton, on the eastern shore, and after +stopping to rest for a day or two in Clinton, a pretty village on the +opposite bank, had pushed on, their faces ever set westward. Then, +turning in a southwesterly direction, they travelled across the lower +part of the State, and almost before they knew it they were on the +sacred soil of Missouri, the dangers of entering which had been +pictured to them all along the route. They had been warned by the +friendly settlers in Iowa to avoid St. Joseph, one of the crossings +from Missouri into Kansas; it was a nest of Border Ruffians, so they +were told, and they would surely have trouble. They must also steer +clear of Leavenworth; for that town was the headquarters of a number +of Missourians whose names were already terrible all over the Northern +States, from Kansas to Massachusetts Bay. + +"But there is the military at Fort Leavenworth," replied Mr. Bryant. +"Surely they will protect the citizens of the United States who are +peaceful and well-behaved. We are only peaceable immigrants." + +"Pshaw!" answered an Iowa man. "All the army officers in this part of +the country are pro-slavery men. They are in sympathy with the +pro-slavery men, anyhow, and if they had been sent here to keep +free-State men out of the Territory, they couldn't do any different +from what they are doing. It's an infernal shame, that's what it is." + +Bryant said nothing in reply, but as they trudged along, for the roads +were very bad, and they could not often ride in their vehicles now, +his face grew dark and red by turns. Finally he broke out,-- + +"See here, Aleck," he cried, "I don't want to sneak into the +Territory. If these people think they can scare law-abiding and +peaceable citizens of a free country from going upon the land of these +United States, we might just as well fight first as last. For one, I +will not be driven out of a country that I have got just as much right +to as any of these hot-headed Missouri fellows." + +His brother-in-law looked troubled, but before he could speak the +impetuous and fiery Sandy said: "That's the talk, Uncle Charlie! +Let's go in by the shortest way, and tackle the Border Ruffians if +they tackle us. Who's afraid?" And the lad bravely handled his +"pepper-box," as his old-fashioned five-barrelled revolver was +sportively called by the men of those days; for the modern revolver +with one barrel for all the chambers of the weapon had not then come +into use. "Who's afraid?" he repeated fiercely, looking around. +Everybody burst out laughing, and the valorous Sandy looked rather +crestfallen. + +"I am afraid, for one," said his father. "I want no fighting, no +bloodshed. I want to get into the Territory and get to work on our +claim, just as soon as possible; but if we can't get there without a +fight, why then, I'll fight. But I ain't seeking for no fight." When +Aleck Howell was excited, his grammar went to the four winds. His view +of the situation commended itself to the approval of Oscar, who said +he had promised his mother that he would avoid every appearance of +hostile intention, keep a civil tongue in his head, have his weapons +out of sight and his powder always dry. + +The emigrants decided to go into Kansas by way of Parkville. + +At Claybank, half-way between the Iowa line and the Missouri River, +they encountered a drover with a herd of cattle. He was eager to +dicker with the Kansas emigrants, and offered them what they +considered to be a very good bargain in exchanging oxen for their +horses. They were now near the Territory, and the rising prices of +almost everything that immigrants required warned them that they were +not far from the point where an outfit could no longer be bought at +any reasonable price. The boys were loth to part with their buggy; +for, although they had been often compelled to go afoot through some +of the worst roads in the States of Iowa and Missouri, they had clung +to the notion that they might have a pair of horses to take into the +Territory, and, while the buggy was left to them, they had a refuge in +times of weariness with walking; and these were rather frequent. The +wagon was exchanged for another, suitable for oxen. + +The immigrants drove gayly into Parkville. They were in sight of the +Promised Land. The Big Muddy, as Missourians affectionately call the +turbid stream that gives name to their State, rolled sluggishly +between the Parkville shore and the low banks fringed with cottonwoods +that were the eastern boundary of Kansas. Looking across, they could +see long lines of white-covered wagons, level plains dotted with +tents, and the rising smoke of many fires, where people who had gone +in ahead of them were cooking their suppers; for they entered +Parkville late in the afternoon. It was a commonplace-looking view of +Kansas, after all, and not at all like what the lads had fancied it +would be. Sandy very emphatically expressed his disappointment. + +"What would you have, Sandy?" asked his uncle, with some amusement. +"Did you expect to see wild honey dripping out of the cottonwoods and +sycamores, buffaloes and deer standing up and waiting to be shot at, +and a farm ready to be tilled?" + +"Well," replied the boy, a little shamefacedly, "I didn't exactly +expect to see all those things; but somehow the country looks awful +flat and dull. Don't you think so?" + +For answer, Mr. Bryant pointed out a line of blue slopes in the +distance. "Those are not very high hills, my boy, to be sure, but they +are on the rolling prairie beyond, and as soon as we get away from the +river we shall find a bluffy and diversified country, I'll warrant +you." + +"Yes; don't you remember," broke in Oscar, eagerly, "Governor +Robinson's book told all about the rolling and undulating country of +the Territory, and the streams that run under high bluffs in some +places?" + +Sandy admitted that this was true of the book; but he added, "Some +books do lie, though." + +"Not Governor Robinson's book," commented his brother Charlie, with a +slight show of resentment. For Charlie had made a study of the reports +from the Promised Land. + +But a more pressing matter was the attitude of the border-State men +toward the free-State emigrants, and the question of making the +necessary purchases for their farming scheme. Parkville was all alive +with people, and there were many border-State men among them. Some of +these regarded the newcomers with unmistakable hostility, noting +which, Sandy and Oscar took good care to keep near their two grown-up +protectors; and the two men always went about with their weapons +within easy reaching distance. All of the Borderers were opposed to +any more free-State men going into the Territory; and many of them +were disposed to stop this by force, if necessary. At one time, the +situation looked very serious, and Sandy got his "pepper-box" into +position. But the trouble passed away, and the arrival of fifteen or +twenty teams, accompanied by a full complement of men, checked a +rising storm of wrath. + +From Platte City, a short distance up the river, however, came doleful +and distressing stories of the ill-treatment of the free-State men who +had gone that way. They were harassed and hindered, and, in some +cases, their teams were deliberately turned about and driven back on +the road by which they had come. It was useless to remonstrate when +the rifles of a dozen men were levelled at the would-be immigrants. +But our travellers in Parkville heard a good story of the bravery of +one free-State man who had been refused transportation across the +ferry at Platte City, kept by an ardent pro-slavery man. The intending +immigrant, unconscious of any hindrance to his crossing, was calmly +driving down to the ferry-boat, a flat-bottomed craft propelled by +long oars, or sweeps, when the ferryman stopped him with the question, +"What hev ye got into yer waggin?" + +"Oxen," sententiously replied the newcomer. + +"And what's them thar cattle follering on behind?" he asked, pointing +to a drove of milch-cattle in the rear. + +"Caouws," answered the immigrant, in the broad pronunciation peculiar +to provincial people of the New England States. + +"All right," was the rejoinder; "a man that says 'caouws' can't go +over this yere ferry withouten he's got the tickets." No argument +would induce the ferryman to explain what the tickets were and where +they could be procured. Finally, his patience exhausted, the +free-State man suddenly drew from the big pockets of his frock a pair +of tremendous pistols, ready cocked, and, holding them full in the +face of the surprised ferryman, he said,-- + +"Here are my tickets, and I'm going across this ferry right off, +caouws or no caouws!" And he went. + +Even at Parkville, where there was very little difficulty in crossing, +as compared with what there had been earlier in the struggle for +Kansas, they were advised by discreet friends and sympathizers to be +on the lookout for opposition. Every fresh arrival of free-State men +angered yet more the Borderers who were gathered there to hinder and, +if possible, prevent further immigration. Mr. Bryant chafed under the +necessity of keeping his voice hushed on the topic that engaged all +his thoughts; and Oscar and Sandy were ready to fight their way +across the river; at least they said so. + +They did find, however, that the buying of provisions and farming-tools +required for their future use, was out of the question in Parkville. +Whether it was the unexpected demand, or a refusal of the Missourians +to sell to free-State men, they could not determine. But the prices of +everything they wanted were very high. What should they do? These +articles they must have. But their cost here was far beyond their +most extravagant estimates. When Mr. Howell was reminded by his +brother-in-law how he had said that no politics could interfere with +trade and prices, he was amused. + +"Of course," he said, "it does look as if these Missourians would not +sell at fair prices because they want to hinder us; but don't you see +that the demand is greater than the supply? I know these folks are +bitterly hostile to us; but the reason why they have so small a stock +of goods on hand is that they have sold out to other free-State men +that have come before us to buy the same things. Isn't that so?" + +Mr. Bryant was obliged to admit that this was a reasonable explanation; +but as he had begun by thinking that every Borderer hated a free-State +man and would do him an injury if he could, he did not give up that +notion willingly. He was certain that there was a plot in the high +prices of bacon, flour, corn-meal, and ploughs. + +In this serious dilemma, Charlie came to the relief of the party with +the information that a free-State man, whose team had just recrossed +the river for a load of supplies sent him by a wagon that was to +return to Iowa, brought news that a large trading-post had been opened +at a new Kansas town called Quindaro. He said that the Iowa man told +him that prices were just now lower in Quindaro than they had ever +been in Parkville. + +"Quindaro?" said Oscar, musingly;--"why, that must be an Indian +name,--feminine Indian name, too, unless I miss my guess." + +Mr. Bryant had heard of Quindaro. It was a brand-new town, a few miles +down the river, settled by free-State men and named for a young, +full-blooded Indian girl of the Delaware tribe. The town was on the +borders of the Delaware reservation, which in those days came close to +the Missouri River. Charlie, also, had gathered some facts about the +town, and he added that Quindaro was a good place to start from, going +westward. The party had laid in a stock of groceries--coffee, tea, and +other articles of that description--before leaving home. Now they +needed staple provisions, a few farming tools, a breaking-plough, and +some seed corn. Few thought of planting anything but corn; but the +thrifty settlers from Illinois knew the value of fresh vegetables, and +they were resolved to have "garden truck" just as soon as seeds could +be planted and brought to maturity. + +"And side-meat?" asked Sandy, wonderingly, as he heard his father +inquiring the price of that article of food. Side-meat, in the South +and West, is the thin flank of a porker, salted and smoked after the +fashion of hams, and in those parts of the Southwest it was (and +probably is) the staple article of food among the people. It is sold +in long, unattractive-looking slabs; and when Sandy heard its name +mentioned, his disgust as well as his wonder was kindled. + +"Side-meat?" he repeated, with a rising inflection. "Why, I thought we +were going to live on game,--birds and buffalo and the like! +Side-meat? Well, that makes me sick!" + +The two men laughed, and Mr. Howell said,-- + +"Why, Sandy, you are bent on hunting and not on buckling down to farm +work. How do you suppose we are going to live if we have nothing to +eat but wild game that we kill, and breadstuffs and vegetables that we +buy?" + +Sandy had thought that they might be able to step out into the woods +or prairie, between times, as it were, and knock down a few head of +game when the day's work was done, or had not begun. When he said as +much, the two heads of the party laughed again, and even Charlie +joined in the glee. + +"My dear infant," said his father, seriously, but with a twinkle in +his eye, "game is not so plenty anywhere as that; and if it were, we +should soon tire of it. Now side-meat 'sticks to the ribs,' as the +people hereabouts will tell you, and it is the best thing to fall back +upon when fresh meat fails. We can't get along without it, and that is +a fact; hey, Charlie?" + +The rest of the party saw the wisdom of this suggestion, and Sandy was +obliged to give up, then and there, his glowing views of a land so +teeming with game that one had only to go out with a rifle, or even a +club, and knock it over. But he mischievously insisted that if +side-meat did "stick to the ribs," as the Missourians declared, they +did not eat much of it, for, as a rule, the people whom they met were +a very lank and slab-sided lot. "Clay-eaters," their new acquaintance +from Quindaro said they were. + +"Clay-eaters?" asked Charlie, with a puzzled look. "They are +clayey-looking in the face. But it can't be possible that they +actually eat clay?" + +"Well, they do, and I have seen them chewing it. There is a fine, soft +clay found in these parts, and more especially south of here; it has a +greasy feeling, as if it was a fatty substance, and the natives eat it +just as they would candy. Why, I should think that it would form a +sand-bar inside of a man, after awhile; but they take to it just as +naturally!" + +"If I have got to choose between side-meat and clay for a regular +diet," said Sandy, "give me side-meat every time." + +That night, having made their plans to avoid the prying eyes of the +border-State men, who in great numbers were now coming in, well-armed +and looking somewhat grimly at the free-State men, the little party +crossed the river. Ten dollars, good United States money, was demanded +by the ferryman as the price of their passage; it looked like robbery, +but there was no other way of getting over the river and into the +Promised Land; so it was paid, with many a wrench of the patience of +the indignant immigrants; and they pitched their tent that night under +the stars and slept soundly on the soil of "bleeding Kansas." + +Bright and early next morning, the boys were up and stirring, for now +was to begin their camp life. Hitherto, they had slept in their tent, +but had taken their meals at the farm-houses and small taverns of the +country through which they had passed. They would find few such +conveniences in the new country into which they had come, and they had +been warned that in Kansas the rule was "every man for himself." + +They made sad work with their first breakfast in camp. Oscar had taken +a few lessons in cooking from his mother, before leaving home, and the +two men had had some experience in that line of duty when out on +hunting expeditious in Illinois, years before. So they managed to make +coffee, fry slices of side-meat, and bake a hoe-cake of Indian-corn +meal. "Hog and hominy," said Sandy's father. "That's the diet of the +country, and that is what we shall come to, and we might as well take +it first as last." + +"There's worse provender than this, where there's none," said Mr. +Bryant, cheerfully; "and before we get through we shall be hungry more +than once for hog and hominy." + +It was an enlivening sight that greeted the eyes of the newcomers as +they looked around upon the flat prairie that stretched along the +river-side. The tents of the immigrants glistened in the rising sun. +The smoke of many camp-fires arose on the summer air. Groups of men +were busily making preparations for their long tramp westward, and, +here and there, women and children were gathered around the +white-topped wagons, taking their early breakfast or getting ready for +the day's march. Here, too, could now be seen the rough and +surly-looking border men who were on the way to points along the route +that were to be occupied by them before too many free-State men should +come in. An election of some sort, the newcomers could not exactly +make out what, was to take place in a day or two, and the Missourians +whom they had seen flocking into Parkville were ready to vote as soon +as they got into the Territory. + +Breakfast over, the boys sauntered around through the camps, viewing +the novel sights with vast amusement. It was like a militia muster at +home, except that the only soldier element they saw was the band of +rough-looking and rough-talking men who were bound to vote and fight +for slavery. They swaggered about with big pistols girt at their hips +and rifles over their shoulders, full-bearded and swarthy, each one a +captain apparently, all without much organization, but very serious in +their intention to vote and to fight. It really seemed as if they had +reached the fighting-ground at last. + +"See here, daddy," said Oscar, as he came in from the camps when the +Dixon caravan was ready to move; "see what I found in this newspaper. +It is a piece of poetry, and a mighty fine piece, too"; and the boy +began to read some lines beginning thus,-- + + "We cross the prairie as of old + The pilgrims crossed the sea, + To make the West, as they the East, + The homestead of the free!" + +"Oh, well; I can't bother about poetry, now," said the father, +hastily. "I have some prose work on hand, just about this time. I'm +trying to drive these pesky cattle, and I don't make a very good fist +at it. Your Uncle Aleck has gone on ahead, and left me to manage the +team; but it's new business to me." + +"John G. Whittier is the name at the top of these verses. I've heard +of him. He's a regular-built poet,--lives somewhere down East." + +"I can't help that, sonny; get on the other side of those steers, and +see if you can't gee them around. Dear, dear, they're dreadful +obstinate creatures!" + +That night, however, when they were comfortably and safely camped in +Quindaro, amid the live-oaks and the tall sycamores that embowered the +pretty little town, Oscar again brought the newspaper to his father, +and, with kindling eyes, said,-- + +"Read it out, daddy; read the piece. Why, it was written just for us, +I do declare. It is called 'The Kansas Emigrants.' We are Kansas +Emigrants, aren't we?" + +The father smiled kindly as he looked at the flushed face and bright +eyes of his boy, and took from him the paper folded to show the +verses. As he read, his eyes, too, flashed and his lip trembled. + +"Listen to this!" he cried. "Listen to this! It is like a trumpet +call!" And with a voice quivering with emotion, he began the poem,-- + + "We cross the prairie as of old + The pilgrims crossed the sea, + To make the West, as they the East, + The homestead of the free!" + +"Something has got into my eyes," said Mr. Howell, as the last stanza +was read. "Great Scott! though, how that does stir a man's blood!" And +he furtively wiped the moisture from his eyes. It was time to put out +the light and go to sleep, for the night now was well advanced. But +Mr. Bryant, thoroughly aroused, read and re-read the lines aloud. + +[Illustration: IN CAMP AT QUINDARO. THE POEM OF "THE KANSAS EMIGRANTS."] + +"Sing 'em," said his brother-in-law, jokingly. Bryant was a good +singer, and he at once tuned up with a fine baritone voice, recalling +a familiar tune that fitted the measure of the poem. + +"Oh, come now, Uncle Charlie," cried Sandy, from his blankets in the +corner of the tent, "that's 'Old Dundee.' Can't you give us something +lively? Something not quite so solemn?" + +"Not so solemn, my laddie? Don't you know that this is a solemn age we +are in, and a very solemn business we are on? You'll think so before +we get out of this Territory, or I am greatly mistaken." + +"Sandy'll think it's solemn, when he has to trot over a piece of newly +broken prairie, carrying a pouchful of seed corn, dropping five grains +in each sod," said his father, laughing, as he blew out the candle. + +"It's a good song; a bully good song," murmured the boy, turning over +to sleep. "But it ought to be sung to something with more of a +rig-a-jig-jig to it." So saying, he was off to the land of dreams. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +AMONG THE DELAWARES. + + +Quindaro was a straggling but pretty little town built among the +groves of the west bank of the Missouri. Here the emigrants found a +store or trading-post, well supplied with the goods they needed, +staple articles of food and the heavier farming-tools being the first +required. The boys looked curiously at the big breaking-plough that +was to be of so much consequence to them in their new life and labors. +The prairies around their Illinois home had been long broken up when +they were old enough to take notice of such things; and as they were +town boys, they had never had their attention called to the implements +of a prairie farm. + +"It looks like a plough that has been sat down on and flattened out," +was Oscar's remark, after they had looked the thing over very +critically. It had a long and massive beam, or body, and big, strong +handles, suggestive of hard work to be done with it. "The nose," as +Sandy called the point of the share, was long, flat, and as sharp as a +knife. It was this thin and knife-like point that was to cut into the +virgin turf of the prairie, and, as the sod was cut, the share was to +turn it over, bottom side up, while the great, heavy implement was +drawn along by the oxen. + +"But the sod is so thick and tough," said Oscar, "I don't see how the +oxen can drag the thing through. Will our three yoke of cattle do +it?" + +The two men looked at each other and smiled. This had been a subject +of much anxious thought with them. They had been told that they would +have difficulty in breaking up the prairie with three yoke of oxen; +they should have four yoke, certainly. So when Mr. Howell explained +that they must get another yoke and then rely on their being able to +"change work" with some of their neighbors who might have cattle, the +boys laughed outright. + +"Neighbors!" cried Sandy. "Why, I didn't suppose we should have any +neighbors within five or ten miles. Did you, Oscar? I was in hopes we +wouldn't have neighbors to plague us with their pigs and chickens, and +their running in to borrow a cupful of molasses, or last week's +newspaper. Neighbors!" and the boy's brown face wore an expression of +disgust. + +"Don't you worry about neighbors, Sandy," said his uncle. "Even if we +have any within five miles of us, we shall do well. But if there is to +be any fighting, we shall want neighbors to join forces with us, and +we shall find them handy, anyhow, in case of sickness or trouble. We +cannot get along in a new country like this without neighbors, and +you bear that in mind, Master Sandy." + +The two leaders of this little flock had been asking about the +prospects for taking up claims along the Kansas River, or the Kaw, as +that stream was then generally called. To their great dismay, they had +found that there was very little vacant land to be had anywhere near +the river. They would have to push on still further westward if they +wished to find good land ready for the pre-emptor. Rumors of fighting +and violence came from the new city of Lawrence, the chief settlement +of the free-State men, on the Kaw; and at Grasshopper Falls, still +further to the west, the most desirable land was already taken up, and +there were wild stories of a raid on that locality being planned by +bands of Border Ruffians. They were in a state of doubt and +uncertainty. + +"There she is! There she is!" said Charlie, in a loud whisper, looking +in the direction of a tall, unpainted building that stood among the +trees that embowered the little settlement. Every one looked and saw a +young lady tripping along through the hazel brush that still covered +the ground. She was rather stylishly dressed, "citified," Oscar said; +she swung a beaded work-bag as she walked. + +"Who is it? Who is it?" asked Oscar, breathlessly. She was the first +well-dressed young lady he had seen since leaving Iowa. + +"Sh-h-h-h!" whispered Charlie. "That's Quindaro. A young fellow +pointed her out to me last night, just after we drove into the +settlement. She lives with her folks in that tall, thin house up +there. I have been looking for her to come out. See, she's just going +into the post-office now." + +"Quindaro!" exclaimed Sandy. "Why, I thought Quindaro was a squaw." + +"She's a full-blooded Delaware Indian girl, that's what she is, and +she was educated somewhere East in the States; and this town is named +for her. She owns all the land around here, and is the belle of the +place." + +"She's got on hoop-skirts, too," said Oscar. "Just think of an Indian +girl--a squaw--wearing hoops, will you?" For all this happened, my +young reader must remember, when women's fashions were very different +from what they now are. Quindaro--that is to say, the young Indian +lady of that time--was dressed in the height of fashion, but not in +any way obtrusively. Charlie, following with his eyes the young girl's +figure, as she came out of the post-office and went across the ravine +that divided the settlement into two equal parts, mirthfully said, +"And only think! That is a full-blooded Delaware Indian girl!" + +But, their curiosity satisfied, the boys were evidently disappointed +with their first view of Indian civilization. There were no blanketed +Indians loafing around in the sun and sleeping under the shelter of +the underbrush, as they had been taught to expect to see them. Outside +of the settlement, men were ploughing and planting, breaking prairie, +and building cabins; and while our party were looking about them, a +party of Delawares drove into town with several ox-carts to carry away +the purchases that one of their number had already made. It was +bewildering to boys who had been brought up on stories of Black Hawk, +the Prophet, and the Sacs and Foxes of Illinois and Wisconsin. A +Delaware Indian, clad in the ordinary garb of a Western farmer and +driving a yoke of oxen, and employing the same curious lingo used by +the white farmers, was not a picturesque object. + +"I allow that sixty dollars is a big price to pay for a yoke of +cattle," said Mr. Howell, anxiously. He was greatly concerned about +the new purchase that must be made here, according to the latest +information. "We might have got them for two-thirds of that money back +in Illinois. And you know that Iowa chap only reckoned the price of +these at forty-five, when we traded with him at Jonesville." + +"It's no use worrying about that now, Aleck," said his brother-in-law. +"I know you thought then that we should need four yoke for breaking +the prairie; but, then, you weren't certain about it, and none of the +rest of us ever had any sod-ploughing to do." + +"No, none of us," said Sandy, with delightful gravity; at which +everybody smiled. One would have thought that Sandy was a veteran in +everything but farming. + +"I met a man this morning, while I was prowling around the settlement," +said Charlie, "who said that there was plenty of vacant land, of +first-rate quality, up around Manhattan. Where's that, father--do you +know? _He_ didn't, but some other man, one of the New England +Society fellows, told him so." + +But nobody knew where Manhattan was. This was the first time they had +ever heard of the place. The cattle question was first to be disposed +of, however, and as soon as the party had finished their breakfast, +the two men and Charlie sallied out through the settlement to look up +a bargain. Oscar and Sandy were left in the camp to wash the dishes +and "clean up," a duty which both of them despised with a hearty +hatred. + +"If there's anything I just fairly abominate, it's washing dishes," +said Sandy, seating himself on the wagon-tongue and discontentedly +eyeing a huge tin pan filled with tin plates and cups, steaming in the +hot water that Oscar had poured over them from the camp-kettle. + +"Well, that's part of the play," answered Oscar, pleasantly. "It isn't +boy's work, let alone man's work, to be cooking and washing dishes. I +wonder what mother would think to see us at it?" And a suspicious +moisture gathered in the lad's eyes, as a vision of his mother's tidy +kitchen in far-off Illinois rose before his mind. Sandy looked very +solemn. + +"But, as daddy says, it's no use worrying about things you can't +help," continued the cheerful Oscar; "so here goes, Sandy. You wash, +and I'll dry 'em." And the two boys went on with their disagreeable +work so heartily that they soon had it out of the way; Sandy remarking +as they finished it, that, for his part, he did not like the business +at all, but he did not think it fair that they two, who could not do +the heavy work, should grumble over that they could do. "The worst of +it is," he added, "we've got to look forward to months and months of +this sort of thing. Father and Uncle Charlie say that we cannot have +the rest of the family come out until we have a house to put them +in--a log-cabin, they mean, of course; and Uncle Charlie says that we +may not get them out until another spring. I don't believe he will be +willing for them to come out until he knows whether the Territory is +to be slave or free. Do you, Oscar?" + +"No, indeed," said Oscar. "Between you and me, Sandy, I don't want to +go back to Illinois again, for anything; but I guess father will make +up his mind about staying only when we find out if there is to be a +free-State government or not. Dear me, why can't the Missourians keep +out of here and let us alone?" + +"It's a free country," answered Sandy, sententiously. "That's what +Uncle Charlie is always saying. The Missourians have just as good a +right here as we have." + +"But they have no right to be bringing in their slavery with 'em," +replied the other. "That wouldn't be a free country, would it, with +one man owning another man? Not much." + +"That's beyond me, Oscar. I suppose it's a free country only for the +white man to come to. But I haven't any politics in me. Hullo! there +comes the rest of us driving a yoke of oxen. Well, on my word, they +have been quick about it. Uncle Charlie is a master hand at hurrying +things, I will say," added Sandy, admiringly. "He's done all the +trading, I'll be bound!" + +"Fifty-five dollars," replied Bryant, to the boys' eager inquiry as to +the price paid for the yoke of oxen. "Fifty-five dollars, and not so +very dear, after all, considering that there are more people who want +to buy than there are who want to sell." + +"And now we are about ready to start; only a few more provisions to +lay in. Suppose we get away by to-morrow morning?" + +"Oh, that's out of the question, Uncle Aleck," said Oscar. "What makes +you in such a hurry? Why, you have all along said we need not get away +from here for a week yet, if we did not want to; the grass hasn't +fairly started yet, and we cannot drive far without feed for the +cattle. Four yoke, too," he added proudly. + +"The fact is, Oscar," said his father, lowering his voice and looking +around as if to see whether anybody was within hearing distance, "we +have heard this morning that there was a raid on this place threatened +from Kansas City, over the border. This is the free-State headquarters +in this part of the country, and it has got about that the store here +is owned and run by the New England Emigrant Aid Society. So they are +threatening to raid the place, burn the settlement, run off the stock, +and loot the settlers. I should like to have a company of resolute men +to defend the place," and Mr. Bryant's eyes flashed; "but this is not +our home, nor our fight, and I'm willing to 'light out' right off, or +as soon as we get ready." + +"Will they come to-night, do you think?" asked Sandy, and his big blue +eyes looked very big indeed. "Because we can't get off until we have +loaded the wagon and fixed the wheels; you said they must be greased +before we travelled another mile, you know." + +It was agreed, however, that there was no immediate danger of the +raid--certainly not that night; but all felt that it was the part of +prudence to be ready to start at once; the sooner, the better. When +the boys went to their blankets that night, they whispered to each +other that the camp might be raided and so they should be ready for +any assault that might come. Sandy put his "pepper-box" under his +pillow, and Charlie had his trusty rifle within reach. Oscar carried +a double-barrelled shot-gun of which he was very proud, and that +weapon, loaded with buckshot, was laid carefully by the side of his +blankets. The two elders of the party "slept with one eye open," as +they phrased it. But there was no alarm through the night, except once +when Mr. Howell got up and went out to see how the cattle were getting +on. He found that one of the sentinels who had been set by the +Quindaro Company in consequence of the scare, had dropped asleep on +the wagon-tongue of the Dixon party. Shaking him gently, he awoke the +sleeping sentinel, who at once bawled, "Don't shoot!" to the great +consternation of the nearest campers, who came flying out of their +blankets to see what was the matter. When explanations had been made, +all laughed, stretched themselves, and then went to bed again to dream +of Missouri raiders. + +The sun was well up in the sky next day, when the emigrants, having +completed their purchases, yoked their oxen and drove up through the +settlement and ascended the rolling swale of land that lay beyond the +groves skirting the river. Here were camps of other emigrants who had +moved out of Quindaro before them, or had come down from the point on +the Missouri opposite Parkville, in order to get on to the road that +led westward and south of the Kaw. It was a beautifully wooded +country. When the lads admired the trees, Mr. Howell somewhat +contemptuously said: "Not much good, chiefly black-jacks and +scrub-oaks"; but the woods were pleasant to drive through, and when +they came upon scattered farms and plantations with comfortable +log-cabins set in the midst of cultivated fields, the admiration of +the party was excited. + +"Only look, Uncle Charlie," cried Sandy, "there's a real flower-garden +full of hollyhocks and marigolds; and there's a rose-bush climbing +over that log-cabin!" It was too early to distinguish one flower from +another by its blooms, but Sandy's sharp eyes had detected the leaves +of the old-fashioned flowers that he loved so well, which he knew were +only just planted in the farther northern air of their home in +Illinois. It was a pleasant-looking Kansas home, and Sandy wondered +how it happened that this cosey living-place had grown up so quickly +in this new Territory. It looked as if it were many years old, he +said. + +"We are still on the Delaware Indian reservation," replied his uncle. +"The Government has given the tribe a big tract of land here and away +up to the Kaw. They've been here for years, and they are good farmers, +I should say, judging from the looks of things hereabouts." + +Just then, as if to explain matters, a decent-looking man, dressed in +the rude fashion of the frontier, but in civilized clothes, came out +of the cabin, and, pipe in mouth, stared not unkindly at the passing +wagon and its party. + +"Howdy," he civilly replied to a friendly greeting from Mr. Howell. +The boys knew that "How" was a customary salutation among Indians, but +"Howdy" struck them as being comic; Sandy laughed as he turned away +his face. Mr. Bryant lingered while the slow-moving oxen plodded their +way along the road, and the boys, too, halted to hear what the +dark-skinned man had to say. But the Indian--for he was a "civilized" +Delaware--was a man of very few words. In answer to Mr. Bryant's +questions, he said he was one of the chiefs of the tribe; he had been +to Washington to settle the terms of an agreement with the Government; +and he had lived in that cabin six years, and on the present +reservation ever since it was established. + +All this information came out reluctantly, and with as little use of +vital breath as possible. When they had moved on out of earshot, Oscar +expressed his decided opinion that that settler was no more like James +Fenimore Cooper's Indians than the lovely Quindaro appeared to be. +"Why, did you notice, father," he continued, "that he actually had on +high-heeled boots? Think of that! An Indian with high-heeled boots! +Why, in Cooper's novels they wear moccasins, and some of them go +barefoot. These Indians are not worthy of the name." + +"You will see more of the same sort before we get to the river," said +his father. "They have a meeting-house up yonder, by the fork of the +road, I am told. And, seeing that this is our first day out of camp on +the last stage of our journey, suppose we stop for dinner at Indian +John's, Aleck? It will be a change from camp-fare, and they say that +John keeps a good table." + +To the delight of the lads, it was agreed that they should make the +halt as suggested, and noon found them at a very large and comfortable +"double cabin," as these peculiar structures are called. Two +log-cabins are built, end to end, with one roof covering the two. The +passage between them is floored over, and affords an open shelter from +rain and sun, and in hot weather is the pleasantest place about the +establishment. Indian John's cabin was built of hewn logs, nicely +chinked in with slivers, and daubed with clay to keep out the wintry +blasts. As is the manner of the country, one of the cabins was used +for the rooms of the family, while the dining-room and kitchen were in +the other end of the structure. Indian John regularly furnished dinner +to the stage passengers going westward from Quindaro; for a public +conveyance, a "mud-wagon," as it was called, had been put on this part +of the road. + +"What a tuck-out I had!" said Sandy, after a very bountiful and +well-cooked dinner had been disposed of by the party. "And who would +have supposed we should ever sit down to an Indian's table and eat +fried chicken, ham and eggs, and corn-dodger, from a regular set of +blue-and-white plates, and drink good coffee from crockery cups? It +just beats Father Dixon's Indian stories all to pieces." + +Oscar and Charlie, however, were disposed to think very lightly of +this sort of Indian civilization. Oscar said: "If these red men were +either one thing or the other, I wouldn't mind it. But they have shed +the gaudy trappings of the wild Indian, and their new clothes do not +fit very well. As Grandfather Bryant used to say, they are neither +fish nor flesh, nor good red herring. They are a mighty uninteresting +lot." + +"Well, they are on the way to a better state of things than they have +known, anyhow," said Charlie. "The next generation will see them +higher up, I guess. But I must say that these farms don't look very +thrifty, somehow. Indians are a lazy lot; they don't like work. Did +you notice how all those big fellows at dinner sat down with us and +the stage passengers, and the poor women had to wait on everybody? +That's Indian." + +Uncle Charlie laughed, and said that the boys had expected to find +civilized Indians waiting on the table, decked out with paint and +feathers, and wearing deerskin leggings and such like. + +"Wait until we get out on the frontier," said he, "and then you will +see wild Indians, perhaps, or 'blanket Indians,' anyhow." + +"Blanket Indians?" said Sandy, with an interrogation point in his +face. + +"Yes; that's what the roving and unsettled bands are called by white +folks. Those that are on reservations and earning their own living, or +a part of it,--for the Government helps them out considerably,--are +called town Indians; those that live in wigwams, or tepees, and rove +from place to place, subsisting on what they can catch, are blanket +Indians. They tell me that there are wild Indians out on the western +frontier. But they are not hostile; at least, they were not, at last +accounts. The Cheyennes have been rather uneasy, they say, since the +white settlers began to pour into the country. Just now I am more +concerned about the white Missourians than I am about the red +aborigines." + +They were still on the Delaware reservation when they camped that +evening, and the boys went into the woods to gather fuel for their +fire. + +They had not gone far, when Sandy gave a wild whoop of alarm, jumping +about six feet backward as he yelled, "A rattlesnake!" Sure enough, an +immense snake was sliding out from under a mass of brush that the boy +had disturbed as he gathered an armful of dry branches and twigs. +Dropping his burden, Sandy shouted, "Kill him! Kill him, quick!" + +The reptile was about five feet long, very thick, and of a dark +mottled color. Instantly, each lad had armed himself with a big stick +and had attacked him. The snake, stopped in his attempt to get away, +turned, and opening his ugly-looking mouth, made a curious blowing +noise, half a hiss and half a cough, as Charlie afterward described +it. + +"Take care, Sandy! He'll spring at you, and bite you in the face! See! +He's getting ready to spring!" + +And, indeed, the creature, frightened, and surrounded by the agile, +jumping boys, each armed with a club, seemed ready to defend his life +with the best weapons at his command. The boys, excited and alarmed, +were afraid to come near the snake, and were dancing about, waiting +for a chance to strike, when they were startled by a shot from behind +them, and the snake, making one more effort to turn on himself, +shuddered and fell dead. + +Mr. Howell, hearing the shouting of the boys, had run out of the camp, +and with a well-directed rifle shot had laid low the reptile. + +"It's only a blow-snake," he said, taking the creature by the tail and +holding it up to view. "He's harmless. Well! Of course a dead snake is +harmless, but when he was alive he was not the sort of critter to be +afraid of. I thought you had encountered a bear, at the very least, by +the racket you made." + +"He's a big fellow, anyhow," said Oscar, giving the snake a kick, "and +Sandy said he was a rattlesnake. I saw a rattler once when we lived in +Dixon. Billy Everett and I found him down on the bluff below the +railroad; and he was spotted all over. Besides, this fellow hasn't any +rattles." + +"The boys have been having a lesson in natural history, Charlie," said +Mr. Howell to his brother-in-law, as they returned with him to camp, +loaded with firewood; Sandy, boy-like, dragging the dead blow-snake +after him. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +TIDINGS FROM THE FRONT. + + +Supper was over, a camp-fire built (for the emigrants did their +cooking by a small camp-stove, and sat by the light of a fire on the +ground), when out of the darkness came sounds of advancing teams. +Oscar was playing his violin, trying to pick out a tune for the better +singing of Whittier's song of the Kansas Emigrants. His father raised +his hand to command silence. "That's a Yankee teamster, I'll be +bound," he said, as the "Woh-hysh! Woh-haw!" of the coming party fell +on his ear. "No Missourian ever talks to his cattle like that." + +As he spoke, a long, low emigrant wagon, or "prairie schooner," drawn +by three yoke of dun-colored oxen, toiled up the road. In the wagon +was a faded-looking woman with two small children clinging to her. +Odds and ends of household furniture showed themselves over her head +from within the wagon, and strapped on behind was a coop of fowls, +from which came a melancholy cackle, as if the hens and chickens were +weary of their long journey. A man dressed in butternut-colored +homespun drove the oxen, and a boy about ten years old trudged behind +the driver. In the darkness behind these tramped a small herd of cows +and oxen driven by two other men, and a lad about the age of Oscar +Bryant. The new arrivals paused in the road, surveyed our friends from +Illinois, stopped the herd of cattle, and then the man who was driving +the wagon said, with an unmistakable New England twang, "Friends?" + +"Friends, most assuredly," said Mr. Bryant, with a smile. "I guess you +have been having hard luck, you appear to be so suspicious." + +"Well, we have, and that's a fact. But we're main glad to be able to +camp among friends. Jotham, unyoke the cattle after you have driven +them into the timber a piece." He assisted the woman and children to +get down from the wagon, and one of the cattle-drivers coming up, +drove the team into the woods a short distance, and the tired oxen +were soon lying down among the underbrush. + +"Well, yes, we _have_ had a pretty hard time getting here. We are the +last free-State men allowed over the ferry at Parkville. Where be you +from?" + +"We are from Lee County, Illinois," replied Mr. Bryant. "We came in by +the way of Parkville, too, a day or two ago; but we stopped at +Quindaro. Did you come direct from Parkville?" + +[Illustration: THE YANKEE EMIGRANT.] + +"Yes," replied the man. "We came up the river in the first place, on +the steamboat 'Black Eagle,' and when we got to Leavenworth, a big +crowd of Borderers, seeing us and another lot of free-State men on the +boat, refused to let us land. We had to go down the river again. The +captain of the boat kicked up a great fuss about it, and wanted to put +us ashore on the other side of the river; but the Missouri men +wouldn't have it. They put a 'committee,' as they called the two men, +on board the steamboat, and they made the skipper take us down the +river." + +"How far down did you go?" asked Bryant, his face reddening with +anger. + +"Well, we told the committee that we came through Ioway, and that to +Ioway we must go; so they rather let up on us, and set us ashore just +opposite Wyandotte. I was mighty 'fraid they'd make us swear we +wouldn't go back into Kansas some other way; but they didn't, and so +we stivered along the road eastwards after they set us ashore, and +then we fetched a half-circle around and got into Parkville." + +"I shouldn't wonder if you bought those clothes that you have got on +at Parkville," said Mr. Howell, with a smile. + +"You guess about right," said the sad-colored stranger. "A very nice +sort of a man we met at the fork of the road, as you turn off to go to +Parkville from the river road, told me that my clothes were too +Yankee. I wore 'em all the way from Woburn, Massachusetts, where we +came from, and I hated to give 'em up. But discretion is better than +valor, I have heern tell; so I made the trade, and here I am." + +"We had no difficulty getting across at Parkville," said Mr. Bryant, +"except that we did have to go over in the night in a sneaking fashion +that I did not like." + +"Well," answered the stranger, "as a special favor, they let us +across, seeing that we had had such hard luck. That's a nice-looking +fiddle you've got there, sonny," he abruptly interjected, as he took +Oscar's violin from his unwilling hand. "I used to play the fiddle +once, myself," he added. Then, drawing the bow over the strings in a +light and artistic manner, he began to play "Bonnie Doon." + +"Come, John," his wife said wearily, "it's time the children were +under cover. Let go the fiddle until we've had supper." + +John reluctantly handed back the violin, and the newcomers were soon +in the midst of their preparations for the night's rest. Later on in +the evening, John Clark, as the head of the party introduced himself, +came over to the Dixon camp, and gave them all the news. Clark was one +of those who had been helped by the New England Emigrant Aid Society, +an organization with headquarters in the Eastern States, and with +agents in the West. He had been fitted out at Council Bluffs, Iowa, +but for some unexplained reason had wandered down as far south as +Kansas City, and there had boarded the "Black Eagle" with his family +and outfit. One of the two men with him was his brother; the other +was a neighbor who had cast in his lot with him. The tall lad was John +Clark's nephew. + +In one way or another, Clark had managed to pick up much gossip about +the country and what was going on. At Tecumseh, where they would be +due in a day or two if they continued on this road, an election for +county officers was to be held soon, and the Missourians were bound to +get in there and carry the election. Clark thought they had better not +go straight forward into danger. They could turn off, and go west by +way of Topeka. + +"Why, that would be worse than going to Tecumseh," interjected +Charlie, who had modestly kept out of the discussion. "Topeka is the +free-State capital, and they say that there is sure to be a big battle +there, sooner or later." + +But Mr. Bryant resolved that he would go west by the way of Tecumseh, +no matter if fifty thousand Borderers were encamped there. He asked +the stranger if he had in view any definite point; to which Clark +replied that he had been thinking of going up the Little Blue; he had +heard that there was plenty of good vacant land there, and the land +office would open soon. He had intended, he said, to go to Manhattan, +and start from there; but since they had been so cowardly as to change +the name of the place, he had "rather soured on it." + +"Manhattan?" exclaimed Charlie, eagerly. "Where is that place? We have +asked a good many people, but nobody can tell us." + +"Good reason why; they've gone and changed the name. It used to be +Boston, but the settlers around there were largely from Missouri. The +company were Eastern men, and when they settled on the name of Boston, +it got around that they were all abolitionists; and so they changed it +to Manhattan. Why they didn't call it New York, and be done with it, +is more than I can tell. But it was Boston, and it is Manhattan; and +that's all I want to know about _that_ place." + +Mr. Bryant was equally sure that he did not want to have anything to +do with a place that had changed its name through fear of anybody or +anything. + +Next day there was a general changing of minds, however. It was +Sunday, and the emigrants, a God-fearing and reverent lot of people, +did not move out of camp. Others had come in during the night, for +this was a famous camping-place, well known throughout all the region. +Here were wood, water, and grass, the three requisites for campers, as +they had already found. The country was undulating, interlaced with +creeks; and groves of black-jack, oak, and cottonwood were here and +there broken by open glades that would be smiling fields some day, but +were now wild native grasses. + +There was a preacher in the camp, a good man from New England, who +preached about the Pilgrim's Progress through the world, and the +trials he meets by the way. Oscar pulled his father's sleeve, and +asked why he did not ask the preacher to give out "The Kansas +Emigrant's Song" as a hymn. Mr. Bryant smiled, and whispered that it +was hardly likely that the lines would be considered just the thing +for a religious service. But after the preaching was over, and the +little company was breaking up, he told the preacher what Oscar had +said. The minister's eyes sparkled, and he replied, "What? Have you +that beautiful hymn? Let us have it now and here. Nothing could be +better for this day and this time." + +Oscar, blushing with excitement and native modesty, was put up high on +the stump of a tree, and, violin in hand, "raised the tune." It was +grand old "Dundee." Almost everybody seemed to know the words of +Whittier's poem, and beneath the blue Kansas sky, amid the groves of +Kansas trees, the sturdy, hardy men and the few pale women joyfully, +almost tearfully, sang,-- + + We crossed the prairie, as of old + The pilgrims crossed the sea, + To make the West, as they the East, + The homestead of the free! + + We go to rear a wall of men + On freedom's Southern line, + And plant beside the cotton-tree + The rugged Northern pine! + + We're flowing from our native hills + As our free rivers flow; + The blessing of our Mother-land + Is on us as we go. + + We go to plant her common schools + On distant prairie swells, + And give the Sabbaths of the wild + The music of her bells. + + Upbearing, like the Ark of old, + The Bible in our van, + We go to test the truth of God + Against the fraud of man. + + No pause, nor rest, save where the streams + That feed the Kansas run, + Save where our pilgrim gonfalon + Shall flout the setting sun! + + We'll tread the prairie as of old + Our fathers sailed the sea, + And make the West, as they the East, + The homestead of the free! + +"It was good to be there," said Alexander Howell, his hand resting +lovingly on Oscar's shoulder, as they went back to camp. But Oscar's +father said never a word. His face was turned to the westward, where +the sunlight was fading behind the hills of the far-off frontier of +the Promised Land. + +[Illustration: OSCAR WAS PUT UP HIGH ON THE STUMP OF A TREE, AND, VIOLIN +IN HAND, "RAISED THE TUNE."] + +The general opinion gathered that day was that they who wanted to +fight for freedom might better go to Lawrence, or to Topeka. Those who +were bent on finding homes for themselves and little ones should press +on further to the west, where there was land in plenty to be had for +the asking, or, rather, for the pre-empting. So, when Monday morning +came, wet, murky, and depressing, Bryant surrendered to the counsels +of his brother-in-law and the unspoken wish of the boys, and agreed to +go on to the newly-surveyed lands on the tributaries of the Kaw. They +had heard good reports of the region lying westward of Manhattan and +Fort Riley. The town that had changed its name was laid out at the +confluence of the Kaw and the Big Blue. Fort Riley was some eighteen +or twenty miles to the westward, near the junction of the streams that +form the Kaw, known as Smoky Hill Fork and the Republican Fork. On one +or the other of these forks, the valleys of which were said to be +fertile and beautiful beyond description, the emigrants would find a +home. So, braced and inspired by the consciousness of having a +definite and settled plan, the Dixon party set forth on Monday +morning, through the rain and mist, with faces to the westward. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +WESTWARD HO! + + +The following two or three days were wet and uncomfortable. Rain fell +in torrents at times, and when it did not rain the ground was steamy, +and the emigrants had a hard time to find spots dry enough on which to +make up their beds at night. This was no holiday journey, and the +boys, too proud to murmur, exchanged significant nods and winks when +they found themselves overtaken by the discomforts of camping and +travelling in the storm. For the most part, they kept in camp during +the heaviest of the rain. They found that the yokes of the oxen chafed +the poor animals' necks when wet. + +And then the mud! Nobody had ever seen such mud, they thought, not +even on the black and greasy fat lands of an Illinois prairie. +Sometimes the wagon sunk in the road, cut up by innumerable wheels, so +that the hubs of their wheels were almost even with the surface, and +it was with the greatest difficulty that their four yoke of oxen +dragged the wagon from its oozy bed. At times, too, they were obliged +to unhitch their team and help out of a mud-hole some other less +fortunate brother wayfarer, whose team was not so powerful as their +own. + +One unlucky day, fording a narrow creek with steep banks, they had +safely got across, when they encountered a slippery incline up which +the oxen could not climb; it was "as slippery as a glare of ice," +Charlie said, and the struggling cattle sank nearly to their knees in +their frantic efforts to reach the top of the bank. The wagon had been +"blocked up," that is to say, the wagon-box raised in its frame or bed +above the axles, with blocks driven underneath, to lift it above the +level of the stream. As the vehicle was dragged out of the creek, the +leading yoke of cattle struggling up the bank and then slipping back +again, the whole team of oxen suddenly became panic-stricken, as it +were, and rushed back to the creek in wild confusion. The wagon +twisted upon itself, and cramped together, creaked, groaned, toppled, +and fell over in a heap, its contents being shot out before and behind +into the mud and water. + +"Great Scott!" yelled Sandy. "Let me stop those cattle!" Whereupon the +boy dashed through the water, and, running around the hinder end of +the wagon, he attempted to head off the cattle. But the animals, +having gone as far as they could without breaking their chains or the +wagon-tongue, which fortunately held, stood sullenly by the side of +the wreck they had made, panting with their exertions. + +"Here is a mess!" said his father; but, without more words, he +unhitched the oxen and drove them up the bank. The rest of the party +hastily picked up the articles that were drifting about, or were +lodged in the mud of the creek. It was a sorry sight, and the boys +forgot, in the excitement of the moment, the discomforts and +annoyances of their previous experiences. This was a real misfortune. + +But while Oscar and Sandy were excitedly discussing what was next to +be done, Mr. Howell took charge of things; the wagon was righted, and +a party of emigrants, camped in a grove of cottonwoods just above the +ford, came down with ready offers of help. Eight yoke of cattle +instead of four were now hitched to the wagon, and, to use the +expressive language of the West, the outfit was "snaked" out of the +hole in double-quick time. + +"Ho, ho, ho! Uncle Charlie," laughed Sandy, "you look as if you had +been dragged through a slough. You are just painted with mud from top +to toe. Well, I never did see such a looking scarecrow!" + +"It's lucky you haven't any looking-glass here, young Impudence. If +you could see your mother's boy now, you wouldn't know him. Talk about +looks! Take a look at the youngster, mates," said Uncle Charlie, +bursting into a laugh. A general roar followed the look, for Sandy's +appearance was indescribable. In his wild rush through the waters of +the creek, he had covered himself from head to foot, and the mud from +the wagon had painted his face a brilliant brown; for there is more or +less of red oxide of iron in the mud of Kansas creeks. + +It was a doleful party that pitched its tent that night on the banks +of Soldier Creek and attempted to dry clothes and provisions by +the feeble heat of a little sheet-iron stove. Only Sandy, the +irrepressible and unconquerable Sandy, preserved his good temper +through the trying experience. "It is a part of the play," he said, +"and anybody who thinks that crossing the prairie, 'as of old the +pilgrims crossed the sea,' is a Sunday-school picnic, might better +try it with the Dixon emigrants; that's all." + +But, after a very moist and disagreeable night, the sky cleared in the +morning. Oscar was out early, looking at the sky; and when he shouted +"Westward ho!" with a stentorian voice, everybody came tumbling out to +see what was the matter. A long line of white-topped wagons with four +yoke of oxen to each, eleven teams all told, was stringing its way +along the muddy road in which the red sun was reflected in pools of +red liquid mud. The wagons were overflowing with small children; coops +of fowls swung from behind, and a general air of thriftiness seemed to +be characteristic of the company. + +"Which way are you bound?" asked Oscar, cheerily. + +"Up the Smoky Hill Fork," replied one of the ox-drivers. "Solomon's +Fork, perhaps, but somewhere in that region, anyway." + +One of the company lingered behind to see what manner of people these +were who were so comfortably camped out in a wall-tent. When he had +satisfied his curiosity, he explained that his companions had come +from northern Ohio, and were bound to lay out a town of their own in +the Smoky Hill region. Oscar, who listened while his father drew this +information from the stranger, recalled the fact that the Smoky Hill +and the Republican Forks were the branches of the Kaw. Solomon's Fork, +he now learned, was one of the tributaries of the Smoky Hill, nearer +to the Republican Fork than to the main stream. So he said to his +father, when the Ohio man had passed on: "If they settle on Solomon's +Fork, won't they be neighbors of ours, daddy?" + +Mr. Bryant took out a little map of the Territory that he had in his +knapsack, and, after some study, made up his mind that the newcomers +would not be "neighbors enough to hurt," if they came no nearer the +Republican than Solomon's Fork. About thirty-five miles west and south +of Fort Riley, which is at the junction of the Smoky Hill and the +Republican, Solomon's Fork branches off to the northwest. Settlers +anywhere along that line would not be nearer the other fork than +eighteen or twenty miles at the nearest. Charlie and Sandy agreed with +Oscar that it was quite as near as desirable neighbors should be. The +lads were already learning something of the spirit of the West. They +had heard of the man who had moved westward when another settler drove +his stakes twenty miles from his claim, because the country was +"gettin' too crowded." + +That day, passing through the ragged log village of Tecumseh, they got +their first letters from home. When they left Illinois, they had not +known just where they would strike, in the Territory, but they had +resolved that they would not go further west than Tecumseh; and here +they were, with their eyes still fixed toward the west. No matter; +just now, news from home was to be devoured before anybody could talk +of the possible Kansas home that yet loomed before them in the dim +distance. How good it was to learn all about the dear ones left at +home; to find that Bose was keeping guard around the house as if he +knew that he was the protector of the two mothers left to themselves +in one home; to hear that the brindle calf had grown very large, and +that a circus was coming to town the very next day after the letter +was written! + +"That circus has come and gone without our seeing it," said Sandy, +solemnly. + +"Sandy is as good as a circus, any day," said his uncle, fondly. "The +greatest show in the country would have been willing to hire you for +a sight, fixed out as you were last night, after we had that upset in +the creek." The boys agreed that it was lucky for all hands that the +only looking-glass in camp was the little bit of one hidden away in +Uncle Charlie's shaving-case. + +The next day, to their great discomfiture, they blundered upon a +county election. Trudging into Libertyville, one of the new mushroom +towns springing up along the military road that leads from Fort +Leavenworth to Fort Riley, they found a great crowd of people gathered +around a log-house in which the polls were open. Country officers were +to be chosen, and the pro-slavery men, as the Borderers were now +called in this part of the country, had rallied in great numbers to +carry the election for their men. All was confusion and tumult. +Rough-looking men, well armed and generally loud voiced, with slouched +hats and long beards, were galloping about, shouting and making all +the noise possible, for no purpose that could be discovered. "Hooray +for Cap'n Pate!" was the only intelligible cry that the newcomers +could hear; but who Captain Pate was, and why he should be hurrahed +for, nobody seemed to know. He was not a candidate for anything. + +"Hullo! there's our Woburn friend, John Clark," said Mr. Howell. Sure +enough, there he was with a vote in his hand going up to the cabin +where the polls were open. A lane was formed through the crowd of men +who lounged about the cabin, so that a man going up to the door to +vote was obliged to run the gauntlet, as it were, of one hundred men, +or more, before he reached the door, the lower half of which was +boarded up and the upper half left open for the election officers to +take and deposit the ballots. + +"I don't believe that man has any right to vote here," said Charlie, +with an expression of disgust on his face. "Why, he came into the +Territory with us, only the other day, and he said he was going up on +the Big Blue to settle, and here he is trying to vote!" + +"Well," said Uncle Charlie, "I allow he has just as good a right to +vote as any of these men who are running the election. I saw some of +these very men come riding in from Missouri, when we were one day out +of Quindaro." As he spoke, John Clark had reached the voting-place, +pursued by many rough epithets flung after him. + +He paused before the half-barricaded door and presented his ballot. +"Let's see yer ticket!" shouted one of the men who stood guard, one +either side of the cabin-door. He snatched it from Clark's hand, +looked at it, and simply said, "H'ist!" The man on the other side of +the would-be voter grinned; then both men seized the Woburn man by his +arms and waist, and, before he could realize what was happening, he +was flung up to the edge of the roof that projected over the low door. +Two other men sitting there grabbed the newcomer by the shoulders and +passed him up the roof to two others, who, straddling the ridge-pole, +were waiting for him. Then the unfortunate Clark disappeared over the +top of the cabin, sliding down out of sight on the farther side. The +mob set up a wild cheer, and some of them shouted, "We don't want any +Yankee votes in this yer 'lection!" + +"Shameful! Shameful!" burst forth from Mr. Bryant. "I have heard of +such things before now, but I must say I never thought I should see +it." He turned angrily to his brother-in-law as Mr. Howell joined the +boys in their laugh. + +"How can you laugh at such a shameful sight, Aleck Howell? I'm sure +it's something to cry over, rather than to laugh at--a spectacle like +that! A free American citizen hustled away from the polls in that +disgraceful fashion!" + +"But, Charlie," said Uncle Aleck, "you'll admit that it was funny to +see the Woburn man hoisted over that cabin. Besides, I don't believe +he has any right to vote here; do you?" + +"He would have been allowed to vote fast enough if he had had the sort +of ballot that those fellows want to go into the box. They looked at +his ballot, and as soon as they saw what it was, they threw him over +the cabin." + +[Illustration: THE POLLS AT LIBERTYVILLE. THE WOBURN MAN IS "HOISTED" +OVER THE CABIN.] + +Just then, John Clark came back from the ravine into which he had slid +from the roof of the log-house, looking very much crestfallen. He +explained that he had met some pro-slavery men on the road that +morning, and they had told him he could vote, if he chose, and they +had furnished him with the necessary ballot. + +"They took in my clothes at a glance," said Clark, "and they seemed to +suppose that a man with butternut homespun was true-blue; so they +didn't ask any questions. I got a free-State ballot from another man +and was a-goin' to plump it in; but they were too smart for me, and +over I went. No, don't you worry; I ain't a-goin' up there to try it +ag'in," he said, angrily, to an insolent horseman, who, riding up, +told him not to venture near the polls again if he "did not want to be +kicked out like a dog." + +"Come on, neighbor; let's be goin'," he said to Uncle Aleck. "I've had +enough voting for to-day. Let's light out of this town." Then the men, +taking up their ox-goads, drove out of town. They had had their first +sight of the struggle for freedom. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +AT THE DIVIDING OF THE WAYS. + + +The military road, of which I have just spoken, was constructed by the +United States Government to connect the military posts of the Far West +with one another. Beginning at Fort Leavenworth, on the Missouri +River, it passed through Fort Riley at the junction of the forks of +the Kaw, and then, still keeping up the north side of the Republican +Fork, went on to Fort Kearney, still farther west, then to Fort +Laramie, which in those days was so far on the frontier of our country +that few people ever saw it except military men and the emigrants to +California. At the time of which I am writing, there had been a very +heavy emigration to California, and companies of emigrants, bound to +the Golden Land, still occasionally passed along the great military +road. + +Interlacing this highway were innumerable trails and wagon-tracks, the +traces of the great migration to the Eldorado of the Pacific; and here +and there were the narrow trails made by Indians on their hunting +expeditions and warlike excursions. Roads, such as our emigrants had +been accustomed to in Illinois, there were none. First came the faint +traces of human feet and of unshod horses and ponies; then the +well-defined trail of hunters, trappers, and Indians; then the +wagon-track of the military trains, which, in course of time, were +smoothed and formed into the military road kept in repair by the +United States Government. + +Following this road, the Dixon emigrants came upon the broad, bright, +and shallow stream of the Big Blue. Fording this, they drove into the +rough, new settlement of Manhattan, lately built at the junction of +the Blue and the Kaw rivers. + +It was a beautiful May day when the travellers entered Manhattan. It +was an active and a promising town. Some attempt at the laying out of +streets had been made. A long, low building, occupied as a hotel, was +actually painted, and on some of the shanties and rude huts of the +newly arrived settlers were signs giving notice of hardware, +groceries, and other commodities for sale within. On one structure, +partly made of sawed boards and partly of canvas, was painted in +sprawling letters, "Counsellor at Law." + +"You'll find those fellows out in the Indian country," grimly remarked +one of the settlers, as the party surveyed this evidence of an +advancing civilization. + +There was a big steam saw-mill hard by the town, and the chief +industry of Manhattan seemed to be the buying and selling of lumber +and hardware, and the surveying of land. Mounted men, carrying the +tools and instruments of the surveyor, galloped about. Few wheeled +vehicles except the ox-carts of emigrants were to be seen anywhere, +and the general aspect of the place was that of feverish activity. +Along the banks of the two streams were camped parties of the latest +comers, many of whom had brought their wives and children with them. +Parties made up of men only seldom came as far west as this. They +pitched their tents nearer the Missouri, where the fight for freedom +raged most hotly. A few companies of men did reach the westernmost +edge of the new settlements, and the Manhattan Company was one of +these. + +The three boys from Illinois were absorbed with wonder as they +strolled around the new town, taking in the novel sights, as they +would if they had been in a great city, instead of a mushroom town +that had arisen in a night. During their journey from Libertyville to +Manhattan, the Dixon emigrants had lost sight of John Clark, of +Woburn; he had hurried on ahead after his rough experience with the +election guardians of Libertyville. The boys were wondering if he had +reached Manhattan. + +"Hullo! There he is now, with all his family around him," said +Charlie. "He's got here before us, and can tell all about the lay of +the land to the west of us, I dare say." + +"I have about made up my mind to squat on Hunter's Creek," said +Clark, when the boys had saluted him. "Pretty good land on Hunter's, +so I am told; no neighbors, and the land has been surveyed off by the +Government surveyors. Hunter's Creek? Well, that's about six miles +above the fort. It makes into the Republican, and, so they tell me, +there's plenty of wood along the creek, and a good lot of oak and +hickory not far off. Timber is what we all want, you know." + +As for Bartlett, who had come out from New England with the Clarks, he +was inclined to go to the lower side of the Republican Fork, taking to +the Smoky Hill country. That was the destination of the Jenness party, +who had passed the Dixon boys when they were camped after their upset +in the creek, several days before. This would leave the Clarks--John +and his wife and two children, and his brother Jotham, and Jotham's +boy, Pelatiah--to make a settlement by themselves on Hunter's Creek. + +Which way were the Dixon boys going? Charlie, the spokesman of the +party because he was the eldest, did not know. His father and uncle +were out prospecting among the campers now. Sandy was sure that they +would go up the Republican Fork. His father had met one of the +settlers from that region, and had been very favorably impressed with +his report. This Republican Fork man was an Arkansas man, but "a good +fellow," so Sandy said. To be a good fellow, according to Sandy's way +of putting things, was to be worthy of all confidence and esteem. + +Mr. Bryant thought that as there were growing rumors of troublesome +Indians, it would be better to take the southern or Smoky Hill route; +the bulk of the settlers were going that way, and where there were +large numbers there would be safety. While the lads were talking with +the Clarks, Bryant and his brother-in-law came up, and, after greeting +their former acquaintance and ascertaining whither he was bound, Mr. +Howell told the boys that they had been discussing the advantages of +the two routes with Younkins, the settler from Republican Fork, and +had decided to go on to "the post," as Fort Riley was generally +called, and there decide which way they should go--to the right or to +the left. + +As to the Clarks, they were determined to take the trail for Hunter's +Creek that very day. Bartlett decided to go to the Smoky Hill country. +He cast in his lot with a party of Western men, who had heard glowing +reports of the fertility and beauty of the region lying along +Solomon's Fork, a tributary of the Smoky Hill. It was in this way that +parties split up after they had entered the Promised Land. + +Leaving the Clarks to hitch up their teams and part company with +Bartlett, the Dixon party returned to their camp, left temporarily in +the care of Younkins, who had come to Manhattan for a few supplies, +and who had offered to guide the others to a desirable place for +settlement which he told them he had in mind for them. Younkins was a +kindly and pleasant-faced man, simple in his speech and frontier-like +in his manners. Sandy conceived a strong liking for him as soon as +they met. The boy and the man were friends at once. + +"Well, you see," said Younkins, sitting down on the wagon-tongue, when +the party had returned to their camp, "I have been thinking over-like +the matter that we were talking about, and I have made up my mind-like +that I sha'n't move back to my claim on the south side of the +Republican. I'm on the north side, you know, and my old claim on the +south side will do just right for my brother Ben; he's coming out in +the fall. Now if you want to go up our way, you can have the cabin on +that claim. There's nobody living in it. It's no great of a cabin, but +it's built of hewed timber, well chinked and comfortable-like. You can +have it till Ben comes out, and I'm just a-keeping it for Ben, you +know. P'raps he won't want it, and if he doesn't, why, then you and he +can make some kind of a dicker-like, and you might stay on till you +could do better." + +"That's a very generous offer of Mr. Younkins's, Charles," said Mr. +Howell to Bryant. "I don't believe we could do better than take it +up." + +"No, indeed," burst in the impetuous Sandy. "Why, just think of it! A +house already built!" + +"Little boys should be seen, not heard," said his elder brother, +reprovingly. "Suppose you and I wait to see what the old folks have to +say before we chip in with any remarks." + +"Oh, I know what Uncle Charlie will say," replied the lad, undismayed. +"He'll say that the Smoky Hill road is the road to take. Say, Uncle +Charlie, you see that Mr. Younkins here is willing to live all alone +on the bank of the Republican Fork, without any neighbors at all. He +isn't afraid of Indians." + +Mr. Bryant smiled, and said that he was not afraid of Indians, but he +thought that there might come a time when it would be desirable for a +community to stand together as one man. "Are you a free-State man?" he +asked Younkins. This was a home-thrust. Younkins came from a slave +State; he was probably a pro-slavery man. + +"I'm neither a free-State man nor yet a pro-slavery man," he said, +slowly, and with great deliberation. "I'm just for Younkins all +the time. Fact is," he continued, "where I came from most of us are +pore whites. I never owned but one darky, and I had him from my +grandfather. Ben and me, we sorter quarrelled-like over that darky. +Ben, he thought he oughter had him, and I knowed my grandfather left +him to me. So I sold him off, and the neighbors didn't seem to like +it. I don't justly know why they didn't like it; but they didn't. +Then Ben, he allowed that I had better light out. So I lit out, and +here I am. No, I'm no free-State man, and then ag'in, I'm no man for +slavery. I'm just for Younkins. Solomon Younkins is my name." + +Bryant was very clearly prejudiced in favor of the settler from the +Republican Fork by this speech; and yet he thought it best to move on +to the fort that day and take the matter into consideration. + +So he said that if Younkins would accept the hospitality of their +tent, the Dixon party would be glad to have him pass the night with +them. Younkins had a horse on which he had ridden down from his place, +and with which he had intended to reach home that night. But, for the +sake of inducing the new arrivals to go up into his part of the +country, he was willing to stay. + +"I should think you would be afraid to leave your wife and baby all +alone there in the wilderness," said Sandy, regarding his new friend +with evident admiration. "No neighbor nearer than Hunter's Creek, did +you say? How far off is that?" + +"Well, a matter of six miles-like," replied Younkins. "It isn't often +that I do leave them alone over night; but then I have to once in a +while. My old woman, she doesn't mind it. She was sort of skeary-like +when she first came into the country; but she's got used to it. We +don't want any neighbors. If you folks come up to settle, you'll be +on the other side of the river," he said, with unsmiling candor. +"That's near enough--three or four miles, anyway." + +Fort Riley is about ten miles from Manhattan, at the forks of the Kaw. +It was a long drive for one afternoon; but the settlers from Illinois +camped on the edge of the military reservation that night. When the +boys, curious to see what the fort was like, looked over the premises +next morning, they were somewhat disappointed to find that the post +was merely a quadrangle of buildings constructed of rough-hammered +stone. A few frame houses were scattered about. One of these was the +sutler's store, just on the edge of the reservation. But, for the most +part, the post consisted of two- or three-story buildings arranged in +the form of a hollow square. These were barracks, officers' quarters, +and depots for the storage of military supplies and army equipments. + +"Why, this is no fort!" said Oscar, contemptuously. "There isn't even +a stockade. What's to prevent a band of Indians raiding through the +whole place? I could take it myself, if I had men enough." + +His cousin Charlie laughed, and said: "Forts are not built out here +nowadays to defend a garrison. The army men don't propose to let the +Indians get near enough to the post to threaten it. The fact is, I +guess, this fort is only a depot-like, as our friend Younkins would +say, for the soldiers and for military stores. They don't expect ever +to be besieged here; but if there should happen to be trouble anywhere +along the frontier, then the soldiers would be here, ready to fly out +to the rescue, don't you see?" + +"Yes," answered Sandy; "and when a part of the garrison had gone to +the rescue, as you call it, another party of redskins would swoop down +and gobble up the remnant left at the post." + +"If I were you, Master Sandy," said his brother, "I wouldn't worry +about the soldiers. Uncle Sam built this fort, and there are lots of +others like it. I don't know for sure, but my impression is that Uncle +Sam knows what is best for the use of the military and for the defence +of the frontier. So let's go and take a look at the sutler's store. I +want to buy some letter-paper." + +The sutler, in those days, was a very important person in the +estimation of the soldiers of a frontier post. Under a license from +the War Department of the Government, he kept a store in which was +everything that the people at the post could possibly need. Crowded +into the long building of the Fort Riley sutler were dry-goods, +groceries, hardware, boots and shoes, window-glass, rope and twine, +and even candy of a very poor sort. Hanging from the ceiling of this +queer warehouse were sides of smoked meat, strings of onions, oilcloth +suits, and other things that were designed for the comfort or +convenience of the officers and soldiers, and were not provided by +the Government. + +"I wonder what soldiers want of calico and ribbons," whispered Sandy, +with a suppressed giggle, as the three lads went prying about. + +"Officers and soldiers have their wives and children here, you +greeny," said his brother, sharply. "Look out there and see 'em." + +And, sure enough, as Sandy's eyes followed the direction of his +brother's, he saw two prettily dressed ladies and a group of children +walking over the smooth turf that filled the square in the midst of +the fort. It gave Sandy a homesick feeling, this sight of a home in +the wilderness. Here were families of grown people and children, +living apart from the rest of the world. They had been here long +before the echo of civil strife in Kansas had reached the Eastern +States, and before the first wave of emigration had touched the +head-waters of the Kaw. Here they were, a community by themselves, +uncaring, apparently, whether slavery was voted up or down. At least, +some such thought as this flitted through Sandy's mind as he looked +out upon the leisurely life of the fort, just beginning to stir. + +All along the outer margin of the reservation were grouped the camps +of emigrants; not many of them, but enough to present a curious and +picturesque sight. There were a few tents, but most of the emigrants +slept in or under their wagons. There were no women or children in +these camps, and the hardy men had been so well seasoned by their past +experiences, journeying to this far western part of the Territory, +that they did not mind the exposure of sleeping on the ground and +under the open skies. Soldiers from the fort, off duty and curious to +hear the news from the outer world, came lounging around the camps and +chatted with the emigrants in that cool, superior manner that marks +the private soldier when he meets a civilian on equal footing, away +from the haunts of men. + +The boys regarded these uniformed military servants of the Government +of the United States with great respect, and even with some awe. +These, they thought to themselves, were the men who were there to +fight Indians, to protect the border, and to keep back the rising tide +of wild hostilities that might, if it were not for them, sweep down +upon the feeble Territory and even inundate the whole Western +country. + +"Perhaps some of Black Hawk's descendants are among the Indians on +this very frontier," said Oscar, impressively. "And these gold-laced +chaps, with shoulder-straps on, are the Zack Taylors and the Robert +Andersons who do the fighting," added Charlie, with a laugh. + +Making a few small purchases from the surly sutler of Fort Riley, and +then canvassing with the emigrants around the reservation the question +of routes and locations, our friends passed the forenoon. The elders +of the party had anxiously discussed the comparative merits of the +Smoky Hill and the Republican Fork country and had finally yielded to +the attractions of a cabin ready-built in Younkins's neighborhood, +with a garden patch attached, and had decided to go in that +direction. + +"This is simply bully!" said Sandy Howell, as the little caravan +turned to the right and drove up the north bank of the Republican +Fork. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE SETTLERS AT HOME. + + +A wide, shallow river, whose turbid waters were yellow with the +freshets of early summer, shadowed by tall and sweeping cottonwoods +and water-maples; shores gently sloping to the current, save where a +tall and rocky bluff broke the prospect up stream; thickets of oaks, +alders, sycamores, and persimmons--this was the scene on which the +Illinois emigrants arrived, as they journeyed to their new home in the +far West. On the north bank of the river, only a few hundred rods from +the stream, was the log-cabin of Younkins. It was built on the edge of +a fine bit of timber land, in which oaks and hickories were mingled +with less valuable trees. Near by the cabin, and hugging closely up to +it, was a thrifty field of corn and other garden stuff, just beginning +to look promising of good things to come; and it was a refreshing +sight here in the wilderness, for all around was the virgin forest and +the unbroken prairie. + +Younkins's wife, a pale, sallow, and anxious-looking woman, and +Younkins's baby boy, chubby and open-eyed, welcomed the strangers +without much show of feeling other than a natural curiosity. With +Western hospitality, the little cabin was found large enough to +receive all the party, and the floor was covered with blankets and +buffalo-skins when they lay down to sleep their first night near their +future home in the country of the Republican Fork. The boys were very +happy that their journey was at an end. They had listened with delight +while Younkins told stories of buffalo and antelope hunting, of Indian +"scares," and of the many queer adventures of settlers on this distant +frontier. + +"What is there west of this?" asked Charlie, as the party were +dividing the floor and the shallow loft among themselves for the +night. + +"Nothing but Indians and buffalo," said Younkins, sententiously. + +"No settlers anywhere?" cried Sandy, eagerly. + +"The next settlement west of here, if you can call it a settlement, is +Fort Kearney, on the other side of the Platte. From here to there, +there isn't so much as a hunter's camp, so far as I know." This was +Younkins's last word, as he tumbled, half dressed, into his bunk in +one corner of the cabin. Sandy hugged his brother Charlie before he +dropped off to sleep, and whispered in his ear, "We're on the frontier +at last! It's just splendid!" + +Next day, leaving their cattle and wagon at the Younkins homestead, +the party, piloted by their good-natured future neighbor, forded the +Fork and went over into the Promised Land. The river was rather high +as yet; for the snow, melting in the far-off Rocky Mountains as the +summer advanced, had swollen all the tributaries of the Republican +Fork, and the effects of the rise were to be seen far down on the Kaw. +The newcomers were initiated into the fashion of the country by +Younkins, who directed each one to take off all clothes but his shirt +and hat. Then their garments were rolled up in bundles, each man and +boy taking his own on his head, and wading deliberately into the +water, the sedate Younkins being the leader. + +It seemed a little dangerous. The stream was about one hundred rods +wide, and the current was tolerably swift, swollen by the inrush of +smaller streams above. The water was cold, and made an ominous +swishing and gurgling among the underbrush that leaned into the margin +of the river. In Indian file, Mr. Howell bringing up the rear, and +keeping his eyes anxiously upon the lads before him, they all crossed +in safety, Sandy, the shortest of the party, being unable to keep dry +the only garment he had worn, for the water came well up under his +arms. + +"Well, that was funny, anyhow," he blithely remarked, as he wrung the +water out of his shirt, and, drying himself as well as he could, +dressed and joined the rest of the party in the trip toward their +future home. + +Along the lower bank of the Republican Fork, where the new settlers +now found themselves, the country is gently undulating. Bordering the +stream they saw a dense growth of sycamores, cottonwoods, and birches. +Some of these trees were tall and handsome, and the general effect on +the minds of the newcomers was delightful. After they had emerged from +the woods that skirted the river, they were in the midst of a lovely +rolling prairie, the forest on the right; on their left was a thick +growth of wood that marked the winding course of a creek which, rising +far to the west, emptied into the Republican Fork at a point just +below where the party had forded the stream. The land rose gradually +from the point nearest the ford, breaking into a low, rocky bluff +beyond at their right and nearest the river, a mile away, and rolling +off to the southwest in folds and swales. + +Just at the foot of the little bluff ahead, with a background of +trees, was a log-cabin of hewn timber, weather-stained and gray in the +summer sun, absolutely alone, and looking as if lost in this untrodden +wild. Pointing to it, Younkins said, "That's your house so long as you +want it." + +The emigrants tramped through the tall, lush grass that covered every +foot of the new Kansas soil, their eyes fixed eagerly on the log-cabin +before them. The latch-string hung out hospitably from the door of +split "shakes," and the party entered without ado. Everything was just +as Younkins had last left it. Two or three gophers, disturbed in +their foraging about the premises, fled swiftly at the entrance of the +visitors, and a flock of blackbirds, settled around the rear of the +house, flew noisily across the creek that wound its way down to the +Fork. + +The floor was of puncheons split from oak logs, and laid loosely on +rough-hewn joists. These rattled as the visitors walked over them. At +one end of the cabin a huge fireplace of stone laid in clay yawned for +the future comfort of the new tenants. Near by, a rude set of shelves +suggested a pantry, and a table, home-made and equally rude, stood in +the middle of the floor. In one corner was built a bedstead, two sides +of the house furnishing two sides of the work, and the other two being +made by driving a stake into the floor, and connecting that by +string-pieces to the sides of the cabin. Thongs of buffalo-hide formed +the bottom of this novel bedstead. A few stools and short benches were +scattered about. Near the fireplace long and strong pegs, driven into +the logs, served as a ladder, on which one could climb to the low loft +overhead. Two windows, each of twelve small panes of glass, let in the +light, one from the end of the cabin, and one from the back opposite +the door, which was in the middle of the front. Outside, a frail +shanty of shakes leaned against the cabin, affording a sort of outdoor +kitchen for summer use. + +"So this is home," said Charlie, gazing about. "What will mother say +to this--if she ever gets here?" + +"Well, we've taken a heap of comfort here, my old woman and me," said +Younkins, looking around quickly, and with an air of surprise. "It's a +mighty comfortable house; leastways we think so." + +Charlie apologized for having seemed to cast any discredit on the +establishment. Only he said that he did not suppose that his mother +knew much about log-cabins. As for himself, he would like nothing +better than this for a home for a long time to come. "For," he added, +roguishly, "you know we have come to make the West, 'as they the East, +the homestead of the free.'" + +Mr. Younkins looked puzzled, but made no remark. The younger boys, +after taking in the situation and fondly inspecting every detail of +the premises, enthusiastically agreed that nothing could be finer than +this. They darted out of doors, and saw a corral, or pound, in which +the cattle could be penned up, in case of need. There was a small +patch of fallow ground, that needed only to be spaded up to become a +promising garden-spot. Then, swiftly running to the top of the little +bluff beyond, they gazed over the smiling panorama of emerald prairie, +laced with woody creeks, level fields, as yet undisturbed by the +ploughshare, blue, distant woods and yet more distant hills, among +which, to the northwest, the broad river wound and disappeared. +Westward, nothing was to be seen but the green and rolling swales of +the virgin prairie, broken here and there by an outcropping of rock. +And as they looked, a tawny, yellowish creature trotted out from +behind a roll of the prairie, sniffed in the direction of the boys, +and then stealthily disappeared in the wildness of the vast expanse. + +[Illustration: THE SETTLERS' FIRST HOME IN THE DESERTED CABIN.] + +"A coyote," said Sandy, briefly. "I've seen them in Illinois. But I +wish I had my gun now." His wiser brother laughed as he told him that +it would be a long day before a coyote could be got near enough to be +knocked over with any shot-gun. The coyote, or prairie-wolf, is the +slyest animal that walks on four legs. + +The three men and Charlie returned to the further side of the Fork, +and made immediate preparations to move all their goods and effects to +the new home of the emigrants. Sandy and Oscar, being rather too small +to wade the stream without discomfort, while it was so high, were left +on the south bank to receive the returning party. + +There the boys sat, hugely enjoying the situation, while the others +were loading the wagon and yoking the oxen on the other side. The lads +could hear the cheery sounds of the men talking, although they could +not see them through the trees that lined the farther bank of the +river. The flow of the stream made a ceaseless lapping against the +brink of the shore. A party of catbirds quarrelled sharply in the +thicket hard by; quail whistled in the underbrush of the adjacent +creek, and overhead a solitary eagle circled slowly around as if +looking down to watch these rude invaders of the privacy of the +dominion that had existed ever since the world began. + +Hugging his knees in measureless content, as they sat in the grass by +the river, Sandy asked, almost in a whisper, "Have you ever been +homesick since we left Dixon, Oscar?" + +"Just once, Sandy; and that was yesterday when I saw those nice-looking +ladies at the fort out walking in the morning with their children. That +was the first sight that looked like home since we crossed the Missouri." + +"Me, too," answered Sandy, soberly. "But this is just about as fine as +anything can be. Only think of it, Oscar! There are buffalo and +antelopes within ten or fifteen miles of here. I know, for Younkins +told me so. And Indians,--not wild Indians, but tame ones that are at +peace with the whites. It seems too good to have happened to us; +doesn't it, Oscar?" + +Once more the wagon was blocked up for a difficult ford, the lighter +and more perishable articles of its load being packed into a dugout, +or canoe hollowed from a sycamore log, which was the property of +Younkins, and used only at high stages of the water. The three men +guided the wagon and oxen across while Charlie, stripped to his +shirt, pushed the loaded dugout carefully over, and the two boys on +the other bank, full of the importance of the event, received the +solitary voyager, unloaded the canoe, and then transferred the little +cargo to the wagon. The caravan took its way up the rolling ground of +the prairie to the log-cabin. Willing hands unloaded and took into the +house the tools, provisions, and clothes that constituted their all, +and, before the sun went down, the settlers were at home. + +While in Manhattan, they had supplied themselves with potatoes; at +Fort Riley they had bought fresh beef from the sutler. Sandy made a +glorious fire in the long-disused fireplace. His father soon had a +batch of biscuits baking in the covered kettle, or Dutch oven, that +they had brought with them from home. Charlie's contribution to the +repast was a pot of excellent coffee, the milk for which, an +unaccustomed luxury, was supplied by the thoughtfulness of Mrs. +Younkins. So, with thankful hearts, they gathered around their frugal +board and took their first meal in their new home. + +When supper was done and the cabin, now lighted by the scanty rays of +two tallow candles, had been made tidy for the night, Oscar took out +his violin, and, after much needed tuning, struck into the measure of +wild, warbling "Dundee." All hands took the hint, and all voices were +raised once more to the words of Whittier's song of the "Kansas +Emigrants." Perhaps it was with new spirit and new tenderness that +they sang,-- + + "No pause, nor rest, save where the streams + That feed the Kansas run, + Save where the pilgrim gonfalon + Shall flout the setting sun!" + +"I don't know what the pilgrim's gonfalon is," said Sandy, sleepily, +"but I guess it's all right." The emigrants had crossed the prairies +as of old their father had crossed the sea. They were now at home in +the New West. The night fell dark and still about their lonely cabin +as, with hope and trust, they laid them down to peaceful dreams. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +SETTING THE STAKES. + + +"We mustn't let any grass grow under our feet, boys," was Mr. Aleck +Howell's energetic remark, next morning, when the little party had +finished their first breakfast in their new home. + +"That means work, I s'pose," replied Oscar, turning a longing glance +to his violin hanging on the side of the cabin, with a broken string +crying for repairs. + +"Yes, and hard work, too," said his father, noting the lad's look. +"Luckily for us, Brother Aleck," he continued, "our boys are not +afraid of work. They have been brought up to it, and although I am +thinking they don't know much about the sort of work that we shall +have to put in on these beautiful prairies, I guess they will buckle +down to it. Eh?" and the loving father turned his look from the grassy +and rolling plain to his son's face. + +Sandy answered for him. "Oh, yes, Uncle Charlie, we all like work! +Afraid of work? Why, Oscar and I are so used to it that we would be +willing to lie right down by the side of it, and sleep as securely as +if it were as harmless as a kitten! Afraid of work? Never you fear +'the Dixon boys who fear no noise'--what's the rest of that song?" + +Nobody knew, and, in the laugh that followed, Mr. Howell suggested +that as Younkins was coming over the river to show them the stakes of +their new claims, the boys might better set an extra plate at +dinner-time. It was very good of Younkins to take so much trouble on +their account, and the least they could do was to show him proper +hospitality. + +"What is all this about stakes and quarter-sections, anyway, father?" +asked Sandy. "I'm sure I don't know." + +"He doesn't know what quarter-sections are!" shouted Charlie. "Oh, my! +what an ignoramus!" + +"Well, what is a quarter-section, as you are so knowing?" demanded +Sandy. "I don't believe you know yourself." + +"It is a quarter of a section of public land," answered the lad. +"Every man or single woman of mature age--I think that is what the +books say--who doesn't own several hundred acres of land elsewhere (I +don't know just how many) is entitled to enter on and take up a +quarter of a section of unoccupied public land, and have it for a +homestead. That's all," and Charlie looked to his father for +approval. + +"Pretty good, Charlie," said his uncle. "How many acres are there in a +quarter-section of land?" + +"Yes, how many acres in a quarter of a section?" shouted Sandy, who +saw that his brother hesitated. "Speak up, my little man, and don't be +afraid!" + +"I don't know," replied the lad, frankly. + +"Good for you!" said his father. "Never be afraid of saying that you +don't know when you do _not_ know. The fear of confessing ignorance is +what has wrecked many a young fellow's chances for finding out things +he should know." + +"Well, boys," said Mr. Bryant, addressing himself to the three lads, +"all the land of the United States Government that is open to +settlement is laid off in townships six miles square. These, in turn, +are laid off into sections of six hundred and forty acres each. Now, +then, how much land should there be in a quarter-section?" + +"One hundred and sixty acres!" shouted all three boys at once, +breathlessly. + +"Correct. The Government allows every man, or single woman of mature +age, widow or unmarried, to go upon a plot of land, not more than one +hundred and sixty acres nor less than forty acres, and to improve it, +and live upon it. If he stays there, or 'maintains a continuous +residence,' as the lawyers say, for a certain length of time, the +Government gives him a title-deed at the end of that time, and he owns +the land." + +"What?--free, gratis, and for nothing?" cried Sandy. + +"Certainly," said his uncle. "The homestead law was passed by Congress +to encourage the settlement of the lands belonging to the Government. +You see there is an abundance of these lands,--so much, in fact, that +they have not yet been all laid off into townships and sections and +quarter-sections. If a large number of homestead claims are taken up, +then other settlers will be certain to come in and buy the lands that +the Government has to sell; and that will make settlements grow +throughout that locality." + +"Why should they buy when they can get land for nothing by entering +and taking possession, just as we are going to do?" interrupted +Oscar. + +"Because, my son, many of the men cannot make oath that they have not +taken up Government land somewhere else; and then, again, many men are +going into land speculations, and they don't care to wait five years +to prove up a homestead claim. So they go upon the land, stake out +their claim, and the Government sells it to them outright at the rate +of a dollar and a quarter an acre." + +"Cash down?" asked Charlie. + +"No, they need not pay cash down unless they choose. The Government +allows them a year to pay up in. But land speculators who make a +business of this sort of thing generally pay up just as soon as they +are allowed to, and then, if they get a good offer to sell out, they +sell and move off somewhere else, and do the same thing over again." + +"People have to pay fees, don't they, Uncle Charlie?" said Sandy. "I +know they used to talk about land-office fees, in Dixon. How much does +it cost in fees to enter a piece of Government land?" + +"I think it is about twenty-five dollars--twenty-six, to be exact," +replied Mr. Bryant. "There comes Younkins," he added, looking down the +trail to the river bank below. + +The boys had been washing and putting away the breakfast things while +this conversation was going on, and Sandy, balancing in the air a big +tin pan on his fingers, asked: "How much land can we fellows enter, +all told?" The two men laughed. + +"Well, Alexander," said his father, ceremoniously, "We two 'fellows,' +that is to say, your Uncle Charlie and myself, can enter one hundred +and sixty acres apiece. Charlie will be able to enter the same +quantity three years from now, when he will be twenty-one; and as for +you and Oscar, if you each add to your present years as many as will +make you twenty-one, you can tell when you will be able to enter and +own the same amount of land; provided it is not all gone by that time. +Good morning, Mr. Younkins." Sandy's pan came down with a crash on the +puncheon floor. + +The land around that region of the Republican Fork had been surveyed +into sections of six hundred and forty acres each; but it would be +necessary to secure the services of a local surveyor to find out just +where the boundaries of each quarter-section were. The stakes were set +at the corner of each section, and Younkins thought that by pacing off +the distance between two corners they could get at the point that +would mark the middle of the section; then, by running lines across +from side to side, thus: [Transcriber's note: An image of a square +subdivided into four smaller squares appears here] they could get at +the quarter-sections nearly enough to be able to tell about where +their boundaries were. + +"But suppose you should build a house, or plough a field, on some +other man's quarter-section," suggested Charlie, "wouldn't you feel +cheap when the final survey showed that you had all along been +improving your neighbor's property?" + +"There isn't any danger of that," answered Younkins, "if you are smart +enough to keep well away from your boundary line when you are +putting in your improvements. Some men are not smart enough, +though. There was a man over on Chapman's Creek who wanted to have +his log-cabin on a pretty rise of ground-like, that was on the upper +end of his claim. He knew that the line ran somewhere about there; +but he took chances-like, and when the line was run, a year after +that, lo, and behold! his house and garden-like were both clean +over into the next man's claim." + +"What did he do?" asked Charlie. "Skip out of the place?" + +"Sho! No, indeed! His neighbor was a white man-like, and they just +took down the cabin and carried it across the boundary line and set it +up again on the man's own land. He's livin' there yet; but he lost his +garden-like; couldn't move that, you see"; and Younkins laughed one of +his infrequent laughs. + +The land open to the settlers on the south side of the Republican Fork +was all before them. Nothing had been taken up within a distance as +far as they could see. Chapman's Creek, just referred to by Younkins, +was eighteen or twenty miles away. From the point at which they stood +and toward Chapman's, the land was surveyed; but to the westward the +surveys ran only just across the creek, which, curving from the north +and west, made a complete circuit around the land and emptied into the +Fork, just below the fording-place. Inside of that circuit, the land, +undulating, and lying with a southern exposure, was destitute of +trees. It was rich, fat land, but there was not a tree on it except +where it crossed the creek, the banks of which were heavily wooded. +Inside of that circuit somewhere, the two men must stake out their +claim. There was nothing but rich, unshaded land, with a meandering +woody creek flowing through the bottom of the two claims, provided +they were laid out side by side. The corner stakes were found, and +the men prepared to pace off the distance between the corners so as to +find the centre. + +"It is a pity there is no timber anywhere," said Howell, discontentedly. +"We shall have to go several miles for timber enough to build our +cabins. We don't want to cut down right away what little there is +along the creek." + +"Timber?" said Younkins, reflectively. "Timber? Well, if one of you +would put up with a quarter-section of farming land, then the other +can enter some of the timber land up on the North Branch." + +Now, the North Branch was two miles and a half from the cabin in which +the Dixon party were camped; and that cabin was two miles from the +beautiful slopes on which the intending settlers were now looking for +an opportunity to lay out their two claims. The two men looked at each +other. Could they divide and settle this far apart for the sake of +getting a timber lot? + +It was Sandy who solved the problem. "I'll tell you what to do, +father!" he cried, eagerly: "you take up the timber claim on the North +Branch, and we boys can live there; then you and Uncle Charlie can +keep one of the claims here. We can build two cabins, and you old +folks can live in one, and we in another." + +The fathers exchanged glances, and Mr. Howell said, "I don't see how I +could live without Sandy and Charlie." + +[Illustration: YOUNKINS ARGUED THAT SETTLERS WERE ENTITLED TO ALL THEY +COULD GET AND HOLD.] + +Younkins brightened up at Sandy's suggestion; and he added that the +two men might take up two farming claims, side by side, and let the +boys try and hold the timber claim on the North Branch. Thus far, +there was no rush of emigration to the south side of the Republican +Fork. Most of the settlers went further to the south; or they halted +further east, and fixed their stakes along the line of the Big Blue +and other more accessible regions. + +"We'll chance it, won't we, Aleck?" said Mr. Bryant. + +Mr. Howell looked vaguely off over the rolling slope on which they +were standing, and said: "We will chance it with the boys on the +timber land, but I am not in favor of taking up two claims here. Let +the timber claim be in my name or yours, and the boys can live on it. +But we can't take up two claims here and the timber besides--three in +all--with only two full-grown men among the whole of us. That stands +to reason." + +Younkins was a little puzzled by the strictness with which the two +newcomers were disposed to regard their rights and duties as actual +settlers. He argued that settlers were entitled to all they could get +and hold; and he was in favor of the party's trying to hold three +claims of one hundred and sixty acres each, even if there were only +two men legally entitled to enter homesteads. Wouldn't Charlie be of +age before the time came to take out a patent for the land? + +"But he is not of age to enter upon and hold the land now," said his +father, stiffly. + +So it was settled that the two men should enter upon the quarter-section +of farming land, and build a cabin as soon as convenient, and that the +claim on the North Fork, which had a fine grove of timber on it, +should be set apart for the boys, and a cabin built there, too. The +cabin in the timber need not be built until late in the autumn; that +claim could be taken up by Mr. Howell, or by Mr. Bryant; by and by they +would draw lots to decide which. Before sundown that night, they had +staked out the corners of the one hundred and sixty acre lot of +farming land, on which the party had arrived in the morning. + +It was dark before they returned from looking over the timber land in +the bend of the North Fork of the Republican. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +DRAWING THE FIRST FURROW. + + +The good-natured Younkins was on hand bright and early the next +morning, to show the new settlers where to cut the first furrow on the +land which they had determined to plough. Having decided to take the +northwest corner of the quarter-section selected, it was easy to find +the stake set at the corner. Then, having drawn an imaginary line from +the stake to that which was set in the southwest corner, the tall +Charlie standing where he could he used as a sign for said landmark, +his father and his uncle, assisted by Younkins, and followed by the +two other boys, set the big breaking-plough as near that line as +possible. The four yoke of oxen stood obediently in line. Mr. Howell +firmly held the plough-handles; Younkins drove the two forward yoke of +cattle, and Mr. Bryant the second two; and the two younger boys stood +ready to hurrah as soon as the word was given to start. It was an +impressive moment to the youngsters. + +"Gee up!" shouted Younkins, as mildly as if the oxen were petted +children. The long train moved; the sharp nose of the plough cut into +the virgin turf, turning over a broad sod, about five inches thick; +and then the plough swept onward toward the point where Charlie stood +waving his red handkerchief in the air. Sandy seized a huge piece of +the freshly-turned sod, and swinging it over his head with his strong +young arms, he cried, "Three cheers for the first sod of Bleeding +Kansas! 'Rah! 'Rah! 'Rah!" The farming of the boy settlers had begun. + +Charlie, at his distant post on the other side of the creek, saw the +beginning of things, and sent back an answering cheer to the two +boys who were dancing around the massive and slow-moving team of +cattle. The men smiled at the enthusiasm of the youngsters, but in +their hearts the two new settlers felt that this was, after all, an +event of much significance. The green turf now being turned over was +disturbed by ploughshare for the first time since the creation of +the world. Scarcely ever had this soil felt the pressure of the foot +of a white man. For ages unnumbered it had been the feeding-ground +of the buffalo and the deer. The American savage had chased his game +over it, and possibly the sod had been wet with the blood of +contending tribes. Now all was to be changed. As the black, loamy +soil was turned for the first time to the light of day, so for the +first time the long-neglected plain was being made useful for the +support of civilized man. + +No wonder the boys cheered and cheered again. + +[Illustration: SANDY SEIZED A HUGE PIECE OF THE FRESHLY-TURNED SOD, AND +WAVING IT OVER HIS HEAD CRIED, "THREE CHEERS FOR THE FIRST SOD OF +BLEEDING KANSAS!"] + + "We go to plant her common schools, + On distant prairie swells, + And give the Sabbaths of the wild + The music of her bells." + +This is what was in Mr. Charles Bryant's mind as he wielded the +ox-goad over the backs of the animals that drew the great plough along +the first furrow cut on the farm of the emigrants. The day was bright +and fair; the sun shone down on the flower-gemmed sod; no sound broke +on the still air but the slow treading of the oxen, the chirrup of the +drivers, the ripping of the sod as it was turned in the furrow, and +the gay shouts of the light-hearted boys. + +In a line of marvellous straightness, Younkins guided the leading yoke +of cattle directly toward the creek on the other side of which Charlie +yet stood, a tall, but animated landmark. When, after descending the +gradual slope on which the land lay, the trees that bordered the +stream hid the lad from view, it was decided that the furrow was long +enough to mark the westerly boundary line of the forty acres which it +was intended to break up for the first corn-field on the farm. Then +the oxen were turned, with some difficulty, at right angles with the +line just drawn, and were driven easterly until the southern boundary +of the patch was marked out. Turning, now, at right angles, and +tracing another line at the north, then again to the west to the point +of original departure, they had accurately defined the outer +boundaries of the field on which so much in the future depended; for +here was to be planted the first crop of the newcomers. + +Younkins, having started the settlers in their first farming, returned +across the river to his own plough, first having sat down with the +Dixon party to a substantial dinner. For the boys, after the first few +furrows were satisfactorily turned, had gone back to the cabin and +made ready the noon meal. The ploughmen, when they came to the cabin +in answer to Sandy's whoop from the roof, had made a considerable +beginning in the field. They had gone around within the outer edge of +the plantation that was to be, leaving with each circuit a broader +band of black and shining loam over which a flock of birds hopped and +swept with eager movements, snapping up the insects and worms which, +astonished at the great upheaval, wriggled in the overturned turf. + +"Looks sorter homelike here," said Younkins, with a pleased smile, +as he drew his bench to the well-spread board and glanced around at +the walls of the cabin, where the boys had already hung their +fishing-tackle, guns, Oscar's violin, and a few odds and ends that +gave a picturesque look to the long-deserted cabin. + +"Yes," said Mr. Bryant, as he filled Younkins's tin cup with hot +coffee, "our boys have all got the knack of making themselves at +home,--runs in the blood, I guess,--and if you come over here again +in a day or two, you will probably find us with rugs on the floor and +pictures on the walls. Sandy is a master-hand at hunting; and he +intends to get a dozen buffalo-skins out of hand, so to speak, right +away." And he looked fondly at his freckled nephew as he spoke. + +"A dibble and a corn-dropper will be more in his way than the rifle, +for some weeks to come," said Mr. Howell. + +"What's a dibble?" asked both of the youngsters at once. + +The elder man smiled and looked at Younkins as he said, "A dibble, my +lambs, is an instrument for the planting of corn. With it in one hand +you punch a hole in the sod that has been turned over, and then, with +the other hand, you drop in three or four grains of corn from the +corn-dropper, cover it with your heel, and there you are,--planted." + +"Why, I supposed we were going to plant corn with a hoe; and we've got +the hoes, too!" cried Oscar. + +"No, my son," said his father; "if we were to plant corn with a hoe, +we shouldn't get through planting before next fall, I am afraid. After +dinner, we will make some dibbles for you boys, for you must begin to +drop corn to-morrow. What ploughing we have done to-day, you can +easily catch up with when you begin. And the three of you can all be +on the furrow at once, if that seems worth while." + +The boys very soon understood fully what a dibble was, and what a +corn-dropper was, strange though those implements were to them at +first. Before the end of planting-time, they fervently wished they had +never seen either of these instruments of the corn-planter. + +With the aid of a few rude tools, there was fashioned a staff from the +tough hickory that grew near at hand, the lower part of the stick +being thick and pointed at the end. The staff was about as high as +would come up to a boy's shoulder, so that as he grasped it near the +upper end, his arm being bent, the lower end was on the ground. + +The upper end was whittled so as to make a convenient handle for the +user. The lower end was shaped carefully into something like the +convex sides of two spoons put together by their bowls, and the lower +edge of this part was shaved down to a sharpness that was increased by +slightly hardening it in the fire. Just above the thickest part of the +dibble, a hole was bored at right angles through the wood, and into +this a peg was driven so that several inches stuck out on both sides +of the instrument. This completed the dibble. + +"So that is a dibble, is it?" said Oscar, when the first one was shown +him. "A dibble. Now let's see how you use it." + +Thereupon his Uncle Aleck stood up, grasped the staff by the upper +end, pressed his foot on the peg at the lower end of the tool, and so +forced the sharp point of the dibble downward into the earth. Then, +drawing it out, a convex slit was shown in the elastic turf. Shaking +an imaginary grain of corn into the hole, he closed it with a stamp of +his heel, stepped on and repeated the motion a few times, and then +said, "That's how they plant corn on the sod in Kansas." + +"Uncle Aleck, what a lot you know!" said Oscar, with undisguised +admiration. + +Meanwhile, Mr. Bryant, taking a pair of old boots, cut off the legs +just above the ankles, and, fastening in the lower end of each a round +bit of wood, by means of small nails, quickly made a pair of +corn-droppers. Sandy's belt, being passed through the loop-strap of +one of these, was fastened around his waist. The dropper was to be +filled with corn, and, thus accoutred, he was ready for doing duty in +the newly ploughed field. When the lad expressed his impatience for +another day to come so that he could begin corn-planting, the two +elders of the family laughed outright. + +"Sandy, boy, you will be glad when to-morrow night comes, so that you +can rest from your labors. You remember what I tell you!" said his +father. + +Nevertheless, when the two boys stepped bravely out, next morning, in +the wake of the breaking-team, they were not in the least dismayed by +the prospect of working all day in the heavy furrows of the plough. +Bryant drove the leading yoke of oxen, Charlie tried his 'prentice +hand with the second yoke, and Howell held the plough. + + "'He that by the plough would thrive, + Must either hold the plough or drive,'" + +commented Oscar, filling his corn-dropper and eyeing his father's +rather awkward handling of the ox-goad. Uncle Aleck had usually driven +the cattle, but his hand was now required in the more difficult +business of holding the plough. + +"'Plough deep while sluggards sleep,'" replied his father; "and if you +don't manage better with dropping corn than I do with driving these +oxen, we shall have a short crop." + +"How many grains of corn to a hole, Uncle Aleck? and how many bushels +to the acre?" asked Oscar. + +"Not more than five grains nor less than three is the rule, my boy. +Now then, step out lively." + +And the big team swept down the slope, leaving a broad and shining +furrow behind it. The two boys followed, one about twenty feet behind +the other, and when the hindermost had come up to the work of him who +was ahead, he skipped the planted part and went on ahead of his +comrade twenty feet, thus alternating each with the other. They were +cheerily at work when, apparently from under the feet of the forward +yoke of oxen, a bird somewhat bigger than a robin flew up with shrieks +of alarm and went fluttering off along the ground, tumbling in the +grass as if desperately wounded and unable to fly. Sandy made a rush +for the bird, which barely eluded his clutches once or twice, and +drew him on and on in a fruitless chase; for the timid creature soon +recovered the use of its wings, and soaring aloft, disappeared in the +depths of the sky. + +"That's the deceivingest bird I ever saw," panted Sandy, out of breath +with running, and looking shamefacedly at the corn that he had spilled +in his haste to catch his prey. "Why, it acted just as if its right +wing was broken, and then it flew off as sound as a nut, for all I +could see." + +When the ploughmen met them, on the next turn of the team, Uncle Aleck +said, "Did you catch the lapwing, you silly boy? That fellow fooled +you nicely." + +"Lapwing?" said Sandy, puzzled. "What's a lapwing?" But the ploughmen +were already out of earshot. + +"Oh, I know now," said Oscar. "I've read of the lapwing; it is a bird +so devoted to its young, or its nest, that when it fancies either in +danger, it assumes all the distress of a wounded thing, and, +fluttering along the ground, draws the sportsman away from the +locality." + +"Right out of a book, Oscar!" cried Sandy. "And here's its nest, as +sure as I'm alive!" So saying, the lad stooped, and, parting the grass +with his hands, disclosed a pretty nest sunk in the ground, holding +five finely speckled eggs. The bird, so lately playing the cripple, +cried and circled around the heads of the boys as they peered into the +home of the lapwing. + +"Well, here's an actual settler that we must disturb, Sandy," said +Oscar; "for the plough will smash right through this nest on the very +next turn. Suppose we take it up and put it somewhere else, out of +harm's way?" + +"I'm willing," assented Sandy; and the two boys, carefully extracting +the nest from its place, carried it well over into the ploughed +ground, where under the lee of a thick turf it was left in safety. +But, as might have been expected, the parent lapwing never went near +that nest again. The fright had been too great. + +"What in the world are you two boys up to now?" shouted Uncle Aleck +from the other side of the ploughing. "Do you call that dropping corn? +Hurry and catch up with the team; you are 'way behind." + +"Great Scott!" cried Sandy; "I had clean forgotten the corn-dropping. +A nice pair of farmers we are, Oscar!" and the lad, with might and +main, began to close rapidly the long gap between him and the steadily +moving ox-team. + +"Leg-weary work, isn't it, Sandy?" said his father, when they stopped +at noon to take the luncheon they had brought out into the field with +them. + +"Yes, and I'm terribly hungry," returned the boy, biting into a huge +piece of cold corn-bread. "I shouldn't eat this if I were at home, and +I shouldn't eat it now if I weren't as hungry as a bear. Say, daddy, +you cannot think how tired my leg is with the punching of that dibble +into the sod; seems as if I couldn't hold out till sundown; but I +suppose I shall. First, I punch a hole by jamming down the dibble with +my foot, and then I kick the hole again with the same foot, after I +have dropped in the grains of corn. These two motions are dreadfully +tiresome." + +"Yes," said his uncle, with a short laugh, "and while I was watching +you and Oscar, this forenoon, I couldn't help thinking that you did +not yet know how to make your muscles bear an equal strain. Suppose +you try changing legs?" + +"Changing legs?" exclaimed both boys at once. "Why, how could we +exchange legs?" + +"I know what Uncle Aleck means. I saw you always used the right leg to +jam down the dibble with, and then you kicked the hole full with the +right heel. No wonder your right legs are tired. Change hands and +legs, once in a while, and use the dibble on the left side of you," +said Charlie, whose driving had tired him quite as thoroughly. + +"Isn't Charlie too awfully knowing for anything, Oscar?" said Sandy, +with some sarcasm. Nevertheless, the lad got up, tried the dibble with +his left hand, and saying, "Thanks, Charlie," dropped down upon the +fragrant sod and was speedily asleep, for a generous nooning was +allowed the industrious lads. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +AN INDIAN TRAIL. + + +The next day was Sunday, and, true to their New England training, the +settlers refrained from labor on the day of rest. Mr. Bryant took his +pocket Bible and wandered off into the wild waste of lands somewhere. +The others lounged about the cabin, indoors and out, a trifle sore and +stiff from the effects of work so much harder than that to which they +had been accustomed, and glad of an opportunity to rest their limbs. +The younger of the boy settlers complained that they had worn their +legs out with punching holes in the sod while planting corn. The soles +of their feet were sore with the pressure needed to jam the dibble +through the tough turf. In the afternoon, they all wandered off +through the sweet and silent wilderness of rolling prairie into the +woods in which they proposed to lay off another claim for pre-emption. +At a short distance above their present home, cutting sharply through +the sod, and crossing the Republican Fork a mile or so above their own +ford, was an old Indian trail, which the boys had before noticed but +could not understand. As Charlie and Oscar, pressing on ahead of +their elders, came upon the old trail, they loitered about until the +rest of the party came up, and then they asked what could have cut +that narrow track in the turf, so deep and so narrow. + +"That's an Injun trail," said Younkins, who, with an uncomfortably new +suit of Sunday clothes and a smooth-shaven face, had come over to +visit his new neighbors. "Didn't you ever see an Injun trail before?" +he asked, noting the look of eager curiosity on the faces of the boys. +They assured him that they never had, and he continued: "This yere +trail has been here for years and years, long and long before any +white folks came into the country. Up north and east of yer, on the +head-waters of the Big Blue, the Cheyennes used to live,"--Younkins +pronounced it Shyans,--"and as soon as the grass began to start in the +spring, so as to give feed to their ponies and to the buffalo, they +would come down this yere way for game. They crossed the Fork just +above yere-like, and then they struck down to the head-waters of the +Smoky Hill and so off to the westwards. Big game was plenty in those +days, and now the Injuns off to the north of yere come down in just +the same way--hunting for game." + +The boys got down on their knees and scanned the trail with new +interest. It was not more than nine or ten inches across, and was so +worn down that it made a narrow trench, as it were, in the deep sod, +its lower surface being as smooth as a rolled wagon-track. Over this +well-worn track, for ages past, the hurrying feet of wild tribes had +passed so many times that even the wiry grass-roots had been killed +down. + +"Did war parties ever go out on this trail, do you suppose?" asked +Sandy, sitting up in the grass. + +"Sakes alive, yes!" replied Younkins. "Why, the Cheyennes and the +Comanches used to roam over all these plains, in the old times, and +they were mostly at war." + +"Where are the Cheyennes and the Comanches now, Mr. Younkins?" asked +Uncle Aleck. + +"I reckon the Comanches are off to the south-like somewhere. It +appears to me that I heard they were down off the Texas border, +somewheres; the Cheyennes are to the westwards, somewhere near Fort +Laramie." + +"And what Indians are there who use this trail now?" inquired Oscar, +whose eyes were sparkling with excitement as he studied the well-worn +path of the Indian tribes. + +Younkins explained that the Pottawottomies and the Pawnees, now +located to the north, were the only ones who used the trail. "Blanket +Indians," he said they were, peaceable creatures enough, but not good +neighbors; he did not want any Indians of any sort near him. When one +of the boys asked what blanket Indians were, Younkins explained,-- + +"There's three kinds of Injuns, none on 'em good,--town Injuns, +blanket Injuns, and wild Injuns. You saw some of the town Injuns when +you came up through the Delaware reserve--great lazy fellows, lyin' +round the house all day and lettin' the squaws do all the work. Then +there's the blankets; they live out in the woods and on the prairie, +in teepees, or lodges, of skins and canvas-like, moving round from +place to place, hunting over the plains in summer, and living off'n +the Gov'ment in winter. They are mostly at peace with the whites, but +they will steal whenever they get a chance. The other kind, and the +worst, is the wild ones. They have nothing to do with the Government, +and they make war on the whites whenever they feel like it. Just now, +I don't know of any wild Injuns that are at war with Uncle Sam; but +the Arapahoes, Comanches, and Cheyennes are all likely to break loose +any time. I give 'm all a plenty of elbow room." + +As the boys reluctantly ceased contemplating the fascinating Indian +trail, and moved on behind the rest of the party, Charlie said: "I +suppose we must make allowance for Younkins's prejudices. He is like +most of the border men, who believe that all the good Indians are +dead. If the Cheyennes and the Comanches could only tell their story +in the books and newspapers, we might hear the other side." + +The idea of a wild Indian's writing a book or a letter to the +newspapers tickled Sandy so much that he laughed loud and long. + +Some two miles above the point where the settlers' ford crossed the +Republican Fork, the stream swept around a bluffy promontory, and on a +curve just above this was the tract of timber land which they now +proposed to enter upon for their second claim. The trees were oak, +hickory, and beech, with a slight undergrowth of young cottonwoods and +hazel. The land lay prettily, the stream at this point flowing in a +southerly direction, with the timber claim on its northwesterly bank. +The sunny exposure of the grove, the open glades that diversified its +dense growth, and the babbling brook that wound its way through it to +the river, all combined to make it very desirable for a timber claim. +At a short distance from the river the land rose gradually to a high +ridge, and on the top of this grew a thick wood of spruce and fir. + +"That's what you want for your next cabin," said Younkins, pointing +his finger in the direction of the pines. "Best kind of stuff for +building there is in these parts." Then he explained to the boys the +process of cutting down the trees, splitting them up into shakes, or +into lengths suitable for cabin-building, and he gave them an +entertaining account of all the ways and means of finishing up a +log-cabin,--a process, by the way, which they found then more +entertaining in description than they afterward found it in the +reality. + +That night when Sandy lay down to refreshing sleep it was to dream of +picturesque Indian fights, witnessed at a safe distance from afar. +Accordingly, he was not very much surprised next morning, while he was +helping Charlie to get ready the breakfast, when Oscar ran in +breathless, with the one word, "Indians!" + +"Come out on the hill back of the cabin," panted Oscar. "There's a lot +of 'em coming out on the trail we saw yesterday, all in Indian file. +Hurry up!" and away he darted, Sandy hastening with him to see the +wonderful sight. + +Sure enough, there they were, twenty-five or thirty Indians,--blanket +Indians, as Younkins would have said,--strung along in the narrow +trail, all in Indian file. It amazed the lads to see how the little +Indian ponies managed to keep their feet in the narrow path. But they +seemed to trot leisurely along with one foot before the other, just as +the Indians did. Behind the mounted men were men and boys on foot, +nearly as many as had passed on horseback. These kept up with the +others, silently but swiftly maintaining the same pace that the +mounted fellows did. It was a picturesque and novel sight to the young +settlers. The Indians were dressed in the true frontier style, with +hunting-shirt and leggings of dressed deerskin, a blanket slung +loosely over the shoulder, all bareheaded, and with coarse black hair +flowing in the morning breeze, except for the loose knot in which it +was twisted behind. Some of them carried their guns slung on their +backs; and others of them had the weapons in their hands, ready for +firing on the instant. + +"There they go, over the divide," said Oscar, as the little cavalcade +reached the last roll of the prairie, and began to disappear on the +other side. Not one of the party deigned even to look in the direction +of the wondering boys; and if they saw them, as they probably did, +they made no sign. + +"There they go, hunting buffalo, I suppose," said Sandy, with a +sigh, as the last Indian of the file disappeared down the horizon. +"Dear me! don't I wish I was going out after buffalo, instead of +having to dibble corn into the sod all day! Waugh! Don't I hate +it!" And the boy turned disconsolately back to the cabin. But he +rallied with his natural good-humor when he had his tale to tell at +the breakfast-table. He eagerly told how they had seen the Indians +passing over the old trail, and had gazed on the redskins as they +went "on the warpath." + +"Warpath, indeed!" laughed Charlie. "Pot-hunters, that's what they +are. All the warfare they are up to is waged on the poor innocent +buffalo that Younkins says they are killing off and making scarcer +every year." + +"If nobody but Indians killed buffalo," said Mr. Bryant, "there would +be no danger of their ever being all killed off. But, in course of +time, I suppose this country will all be settled up, and then there +will be railroads, and after that the buffalo will have to go. Just +now, any white man that can't saddle his horse and go out and kill a +buffalo before breakfast thinks they are getting scarce. But I have +heard some of the soldiers say that away up north of here, a little +later in the season, the settlers cannot keep their crops, the buffalo +roam all over everything so." + +"For my part," put in Charlie, "I am not in the least afraid that the +buffalo will be so plenty around these parts that they will hurt our +crops; and I'd just like to see a herd come within shooting distance." +And here he raised his arms, and took aim along an imaginary rifle. + +Later in the forenoon, when the two younger boys had reached the end +of the two rows in which they had been planting, Sandy straightened +himself up with an effort, and said, "This is leg-weary work, isn't +it, Oscar? I hate work, anyhow," he added, discontentedly, leaning on +the top of his dibble, and looking off over the wide and green prairie +that stretched toward the setting sun. "I wish I was an Indian." + +Oscar burst into a laugh, and said, "Wish you were an Indian!--so you +could go hunting when you like, and not have any work to do? Why, +Sandy, I didn't think that of you." + +Sandy colored faintly, and said, "Well, I do hate work, honestly; and +it is only because I know that I ought, and that father expects me to +do my share, that I do it, and never grumble about it. Say, I never do +grumble, do I, Oscar?" he asked earnestly. + +"Only once in a while, when you can't help it, Sandy. I don't like +work any better than you do; but it's no use talking about it, we've +got to do it." + +"I always feel so in the spring," said Sandy, very gravely and with a +little sigh, as he went pegging away down another furrow. + +Forty acres of land was all that the settlers intended to plant with +corn, for the first year. Forty acres does not seem a very large tract +of land to speak of, but when one sees the area marked out with a +black furrow, and realizes that every foot of it must be covered with +the corn-planter, it looks formidable. The boys thought it was a very +big piece of land when they regarded it in that way. But the days soon +flew by; and even while the young workers were stumping over the +field, they consoled themselves with visions of gigantic ripe +watermelons and mammoth pumpkins and squashes that would regale their +eyes before long. For, following the example of most Kansas farmers, +they had stuck into many of the furrows with the corn the seeds of +these easily grown vines. + +"Keep the melons a good way from the pumpkins, and the squashes a good +way from both, if you don't want a bad mixture," said Uncle Aleck to +the boy settlers. Then he explained that if the pollen of the +squash-blossoms should happen to fall on the melon-blossoms, the fruit +would be neither good melon nor yet good squash, but a poor mixture of +both. This piece of practical farming was not lost on Charlie; and +when he undertook the planting of the garden spot which they found +near the cabin, he took pains to separate the cucumber-beds as far as +possible from the hills in which he planted his cantaloupe seeds. The +boys were learning while they worked, even if they did grumble +occasionally over their tasks. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +HOUSE-BUILDING. + + +There was a change in the programme of daily labor, when the corn was +in the ground. At odd times the settlers had gone over to the wood-lot +and had laid out their plans for the future home on that claim. There +was more variety to be expected in house-building than in planting, +and the boys had looked forward with impatience to the beginning of +that part of their enterprise. Logs for the house were cut from the +pines and firs of the hill beyond the river bluff. From these, too, +were to be riven, or split, the "shakes" for the roof-covering and for +the odd jobs of work to be done about the premises. + +Now, for the first time, the boys learned the use of some of the +strange tools that they had brought with them. They had wondered over +the frow, an iron instrument about fourteen inches long, for splitting +logs. At right angles with the blade, and fixed in an eye at one end, +was a handle of hard-wood. A section of wood was stood up endwise on a +firm foundation of some sort, and the thin end of the frow was +hammered down into the grain of the wood, making a lengthwise split. + +In the same way, the section of wood so riven was split again and +again until each split was thin enough. The final result was called a +"shake." Shakes were used for shingles, and even--when nailed on +frames--for doors. Sawed lumber was very dear; and, except the sashes +in the windows, every bit of the log-cabin must be got out of the +primitive forest. + +The boys were proud of the ample supply which their elders had brought +with them; for even the knowing Younkins, scrutinizing the tools for +woodcraft with a critical eye, remarked, "That's a good outfit, for a +party of green settlers." Six stout wedges of chilled iron, and a +heavy maul to hammer them with, were to be used for the splitting up +of the big trees into smaller sections. Wooden wedges met the wants of +many people in those primitive parts, at times, and the man who had a +good set of iron wedges and a powerful maul was regarded with envy. + +"What are these clumsy rings for?" Oscar had asked when he saw the +maul-rings taken out of the wagon on their arrival and unloading. + +His uncle smiled, and said, "You will find out what these are for, my +lad, when you undertake to swing the maul. Did you never hear of +splitting rails? Well, these are to split rails and such things from +the log. We chop off a length of a tree, about eight inches thick, +taking the toughest and densest wood we can find. Trim off the bark +from a bit of the trunk, which must be twelve or fourteen inches long; +drive your rings on each end of the block to keep it from splitting; +fit a handle to one end, or into one side of the block; and there you +have your maul." + +"Why, that's only a beetle, after all," cried Sandy, who, sitting on a +stump near by, had been a deeply interested listener to his father's +description of the maul. + +"Certainly, my son; a maul is what people in the Eastern States would +call a beetle; but you ask Younkins, some day, if he has a beetle over +at his place. He, I am sure, would never use the name beetle." + +Log-cabin building was great fun to the boys, although they did not +find it easy work. There was a certain novelty about the raising of +the structure that was to be a home, and an interest in learning the +use of rude tools that lasted until the cabin was finished. The maul +and the wedges, the frow and the little maul intended for it, and all +the other means and appliances of the building, were all new and +strange to these bright lads. + +[Illustration: MAKING "SHAKES" WITH A "FROW."] + +First, the size of the cabin, twelve feet wide and twenty feet long, +was marked out on the site on which it was to rise, and four logs were +laid to define the foundation. These were the sills of the new house. +At each end of every log two notches were cut, one on the under side +and one on the upper, to fit into similar notches cut in the log +below, and in that which was to be placed on top. So each corner was +formed by these interlacing and overlapping ends. The logs were piled +up, one above another, just as children build "cob-houses," from odds +and ends of playthings. Cabin-builders do not say that a cabin is a +certain number of feet high; they usually say that it is ten logs +high, or twelve logs high, as the case may be. When the structure is +as high as the eaves are intended to be, the top logs are bound +together, from side to side, with smaller logs fitted upon the upper +logs of each side and laid across as if they were to be the supports +of a floor for another story. Then the gable-ends are built up of +logs, shorter and shorter as the peak of the gable is approached, and +kept in place by other small logs laid across, endwise of the cabin, +and locked into the end of each log in the gable until all are in +place. On these transverse logs, or rafters, the roof is laid. Holes +are cut or sawed through the logs for the door and windows, and the +house begins to look habitable. + +The settlers on the Republican Fork cut the holes for doors and +windows before they put on the roof, and when the layer of split +shakes that made the roof was in place, and the boys bounded inside to +see how things looked, they were greatly amused to notice how light it +was. The spaces between the logs were almost wide enough to crawl +through, Oscar said. But they had studied log-cabin building enough to +know that these wide cracks were to be "chinked" with thin strips of +wood, the refuse of shakes, driven in tightly, and then daubed over +with clay, a fine bed of which was fortunately near at hand. The +provident Younkins had laid away in his own cabin the sashes and glass +for two small windows; and these he had agreed to sell to the +newcomers. Partly hewn logs for floor-joists were placed upon the +ground inside the cabin, previously levelled off for the purpose. On +these were laid thick slabs of oak and hickory, riven out of logs +drawn from the grove near by. These slabs of hard-wood were +"puncheons," and fortunate as was the man who could have a floor of +sawed lumber to his cabin, he who was obliged to use puncheons was +better off than those with whom timber was so scarce that the natural +surface on the ground was their only floor. + +"My! how it rattles!" was Sandy's remark when he had first taken a few +steps on the new puncheon floor of their cabin. "It sounds like a +tread-mill going its rounds. Can't you nail these down, daddy?" + +His father explained that the unseasoned lumber of the puncheons would +so shrink in the drying that no fastening could hold them. They must +lie loosely on the floor-joists until they were thoroughly seasoned; +then they might be fastened down with wooden pins driven through holes +bored for that purpose; nails and spikes cost too much to be wasted on +a puncheon floor. In fact, very little hardware was wasted on any part +of that cabin. Even the door was made by fastening with wooden pegs a +number of short pieces of shakes to a frame fitted to the doorway cut +in the side of the cabin. The hinges were strong bits of leather, the +soles of the boots whose legs had been used for corn-droppers. The +clumsy wooden latch was hung inside to a wooden pin driven into one of +the crosspieces of the door, and it played in a loop of deerskin at +the other end. A string of deerskin fastened to the end of the +latch-bar nearest the jamb of the doorway was passed outside through a +hole cut in the door, serving to lift the latch from without when a +visitor would enter. + +"Our latch-string hangs out!" exclaimed Charlie, triumphantly, when +this piece of work was done. "I must say I never knew before what it +meant to have the 'latch-string hanging out' for all comers. See, +Oscar, when we shut up the house for the night, all we have to do is +to pull in the latch-string, and the door is barred." + +"Likewise, when you have dropped your jackknife through a crack in the +floor into the cellar beneath, all you have to do is to turn over a +puncheon or two and get down and find it," said Sandy, coolly, as he +took up two slabs and hunted for his knife. The boys soon found that +although their home was rude and not very elegant as to its furniture, +it had many conveniences that more elaborate and handsomer houses did +not have. There were no floors to wash, hardly to sweep. As their +surroundings were simple, their wants were few. It was a free and easy +life that they were gradually drifting into, here in the wilderness. + +Charlie declared that the cabin ought to have a name. As yet, the land +on which they had settled had no name except that of the river by +which it lay. The boys thought it would give some sort of distinction +to their home if they gave it a title. "Liberty Hall," they thought +would be a good name to put on the roof of their log-cabin. Something +out of Cooper's novels, Oscar proposed, would be the best for the +locality. + +"'Hog-and-hominy,' how would that suit?" asked Sandy, with a laugh. +"Unless we get some buffalo or antelope meat pretty soon, it will be +hog and hominy to the end of the chapter." + +"Why not call it the John G. Whittier cabin?" said Uncle Aleck, +looking up from his work of shaping an ox-yoke. + +"The very thing, daddy!" shouted Sandy, clapping his hands. "Only +don't you think that's a very long name to say in a hurry? Whittier +would be shorter, you know. But, then," he added, doubtfully, "it +isn't everybody that would know which Whittier was meant by that, +would they?" + +"Sandy seems to think that the entire population of Kansas will be +coming here, some day, to read that name, if we ever have it. We have +been here two months now, and no living soul but ourselves and +Younkins has ever been in these diggings; not one. Oh, I say, let's +put up just nothing but 'Whittier' over the door there. We'll know +what that means, and if anybody comes in the course of time, I'll +warrant he'll soon find out which Whittier it means." This was Oscar's +view of the case. + +"Good for you, Oscar!" said his uncle. "Whittier let it be." + +Before sundown, that day, a straight-grained shake of pine, free from +knot or blemish, had been well smoothed down with the draw-shave, and +on its fair surface, writ large, was the beloved name of the New +England poet, thus: WHITTIER. + +This was fastened securely over the entrance of the new log-cabin, and +the Boy Settlers, satisfied with their work, stood off at a little +distance and gave it three cheers. The new home was named. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +LOST! + + +"We must have some board-nails and some lead," remarked Uncle Aleck, +one fine morning, as the party were putting the finishing touches to +the Whittier cabin. "Who will go down to the post and get them?" + +"I", "I", "I", shouted all three of the boys at once. + +"Oh, you will all go, will you?" said he, with a smile. "Well, you +can't all go, for we can borrow only one horse, and it's ten miles +down there and ten miles back; and you will none of you care to walk, +I am very sure." + +The boys looked at each other and laughed. Who should be the lucky one +to take that delightful horseback ride down to the post, as Fort Riley +was called, and get a glimpse of civilization? + +"I'll tell you what we'll do," said Sandy, after some good-natured +discussion. "Let's draw cuts to see who shall go. Here they are. You +draw first, Charlie, you being the eldest man. Now, then, Oscar. Why, +hooray! it's my cut! I've drawn the longest, and so I am to go. Oh, it +was a fair and square deal, daddy," he added, seeing his father look +sharply at him. + +The matter was settled, and next morning, bright and early, Sandy was +fitted out with his commissions and the money to buy them with. +Younkins had agreed to let him have his horse, saddle, and bridle. +Work on the farm was now practically over until time for harvesting +was come. So the other two boys accompanied Sandy over to the Younkins +side of the river and saw him safely off down the river road leading +to the post. A meal-sack in which to bring back his few purchases was +snugly rolled up and tied to the crupper of his saddle, and feeling in +his pocket for the hundredth time to make sure of the ten-dollar gold +piece therein bestowed, Sandy trotted gayly down the road. The two +other boys gazed enviously after him, and then went home, wondering, +as they strolled along, how long Sandy would be away. He would be back +by dark at the latest, for the days were now at about their longest, +and the long summer day was just begun. + +At Younkins's cabin they met Hiram Battles, a neighbor who lived +beyond the divide to the eastward, and who had just ridden over in +search of some of his cattle that had strayed away, during the night +before. Mr. Battles said he was "powerful worrited." Indians had been +seen prowling around on his side of the divide: but he had seen no +signs of a camp, and he had traced the tracks of his cattle, three +head in all, over this way as far as Lone Tree Creek, a small stream +just this side of the divide; but there he had unaccountably lost all +trace of them. + +"Well, as for the Indians," said Charlie, modestly, "we have seen them +passing out on the trail. But they were going hunting, and they kept +right on to the southward and westward; and we have not seen them go +back since." + +"The lad's right," said Younkins, slowly, "but still I don't like the +stories I hear down the road a piece. They do say that the Shians have +riz." + +"The Cheyennes have risen!" exclaimed Charlie. "And we have let Sandy +go down to the post alone!" + +Both of the men laughed--a little unpleasantly, it seemed to the +boys, although Younkins was the soul of amiability and mildness. But +Charlie thought it was unkind in them to laugh at his very natural +apprehensions; and he said as much, as he and Oscar, with their +clothes on their heads, waded the Republican Fork on the way home. + +"Well, Charlie," was Oscar's comforting remark, as they scrambled up +the opposite bank, "I guess the reason why they laughed at us was that +if the Cheyennes have gone on the warpath, the danger is out in the +west; whereas, Sandy has gone eastward to-day, and that is right in +the way of safety, isn't it? He's gone to the post; and you know that +the people down at Soldier Creek told us that this was a good place to +settle, because the post would be our protection in case of an Indian +rising." + +Meanwhile, Sandy was blissfully and peacefully jogging along in the +direction of the military post. Only one house stood between +Younkins's and the fort; and that was Mullett's. They all had occasion +to think pleasantly of Mullett's; for whenever an opportunity came for +the mail to be forwarded from the fort up to Mullett's, it was sent +there; then Sparkins, who was the next neighbor above, but who lived +off the road a bit, would go down to Mullett's and bring the mail up +to his cabin; when he did this, he left a red flannel flag flying on +the roof of his house, and Younkins, if passing along the trail, saw +the signal and went out of his way a little to take the mail up to his +cabin. Somehow, word was sent across the river to the Whittier boys, +as the good Younkins soon learned to call the Boy Settlers, and they +went gladly over to Younkins's and got the precious letters and papers +from home. That was the primitive way in which the mail for the +settlers on the Republican Fork went up the road from Fort Riley, in +those days; and all letters and papers designed for the settlers along +there were addressed simply to Fort Riley, which was their nearest +post-office. + +So Sandy, when he reached Mullett's, was not disappointed to be told +that there were no letters for anybody up the river. There had been +nobody down to the post very lately. Sandy knew that, and he was +confident that he would have the pleasure of bringing up a good-sized +budget when he returned. So he whipped up his somewhat lazy steed and +cantered down toward the fort. + +Soon after leaving Mullett's he met a drove of sheep. The drivers were +two men and a boy of his own age, mounted on horseback and carrying +their provisions, apparently, strapped behind them. When he asked them +where they were going, they surlily replied that they were going to +California. That would take them right up the road that he had come +down, Sandy thought to himself. And he wondered if the boys at home +would see the interesting sight of five hundred sheep going up the +Republican Fork, bound for California. + +He reached the fort before noon; and, with a heart beating high +with pleasure, he rode into the grounds and made his way to the +well-remembered sutler's store where he had bought the candy, +months before. He had a few pennies of his own, and he mentally +resolved to spend these for raisins. Sandy had a "sweet tooth", but, +except for sugar and molasses, he had eaten nothing sweet since +they were last at Fort Riley on their way westward. + +It was with a feeling of considerable importance that Sandy surveyed +the interior of the sutler's store. The proprietor looked curiously +at him, as if wondering why so small a boy should turn up alone in +that wilderness; and when the lad asked for letters for the families +up the river, Mullett's, Sparkins's, Battles's, Younkins's, and his +own people, the sutler said: "Be you one of them Abolitioners that +have named your place after that man Whittier, the Abolition poet? +I've hearn tell of you, and I've hearn tell of him. And he ain't no +good. Do you hear me?" Sandy replied that he heard him, and to himself +he wondered greatly how anybody, away down here, ten miles from the +new home, could possibly have heard about the name they had given to +their cabin. + +Several soldiers who had been lounging around the place now went out +at the door. The sutler, looking cautiously about as if to be sure +that nobody heard him, said: "Never you mind what I said just now, +sonny. Right you are, and that man Whittier writes the right sort of +stuff. Bet yer life! I'm no Abolitioner; but I'm a free-State man, I +am, every time." + +"Then what made you talk like that, just now?" asked Sandy, his +honest, freckled face glowing with righteous indignation. "If you like +Mr. John G. Whittier's poetry, why did you say he wasn't any good?" + +"Policy, policy, my little man. This yere's a pro-slavery guv'ment, +and this yere is a pro-slavery post. I couldn't keep this place one +single day if they thought I was a free-State man. See? But I tell you +right here, and don't you fergit it, this yere country is going to be +free State. Kansas is no good for slavery; and slavery can't get in +here. Stick a pin there, and keep your eye on it." + +With some wonder and much disgust at the man's cowardice, Sandy +packed his precious letters in the bosom of his shirt. Into one end +of his meal-sack he put a pound of soda-biscuit for which his Uncle +Charlie had longed, a half-pound of ground ginger with which +Charlie desired to make some "molasses gingerbread, like mother's," +and a half-pound of smoking-tobacco for his dear father. It seemed +a long way off to his father now, Sandy thought, as he tied up +that end of the bag. Then into the other end, having tied the bag +firmly around, about a foot and a half from the mouth, he put the +package of nails and a roll of sheet lead. It had been agreed that +if they were to go buffalo-hunting, they must have rifle-balls and +bullets for their shot-guns. + +The sutler, who had become very friendly, looked on with an amused +smile, and said, "'Pears to me, sonny, you got all the weight at one +end, haven't you?" + +Sandy did not like to be called "sonny," but he good-naturedly agreed +that he had made a mistake; so he began all over again and shifted +his cargo so that the nails and a box of yeast-powder occupied one +end of the meal-sack, and the other articles balanced the other. The +load was then tied closely to the crupper of the saddle and the boy +was ready to start on his homeward trip. His eyes roved longingly over +the stock of goodies which the sutler kept for the children, young and +old, of the garrison, and he asked, "How much for raisins?" + +"Two bits a pound for box, and fifteen cents for cask," replied the +man, sententiously. + +"Give me half a pound of cask raisins," said the boy, with some +hesitation. He had only a few cents to spare for his own purchases. + +The sutler weighed out a half-pound of box raisins, did them up, and +handed them across the counter, saying, "No pay; them's for +Whittier." + +Sandy took the package, shoved it into his shirt-bosom, and, wondering +if his "Thank you" were sufficient payment for the gift, mounted his +steed, rode slowly up the road to a spring that he had noticed +bubbling out of the side of a ravine, and with a thankful heart, +turning out the horse to graze, sat down to eat his frugal lunch, now +graced with the dry but to him delicious raisins. So the sutler at +Fort Riley was a free-State man! Wasn't that funny! + +It was a beautifully bright afternoon, and Sandy, gathering his +belongings together, started up the river road on a brisk canter. The +old horse was a hard trotter, and when he slackened down from a +canter, poor Sandy shook in every muscle, and his teeth chattered as +if he had a fit of ague. But whenever the lad contrived to urge his +steed into an easier gait he got on famously. The scenery along the +Republican Fork is (or was) very agreeable to the eye. Long slopes of +vivid green stretched off in every direction, their rolling sides +dropping into deep ravines through which creeks, bordered with dense +growths of alder, birch, and young cottonwood, meandered. The sky was +blue and cloudless, and, as the boy sped along the breezy uplands, the +soft and balmy air fanning his face, he sung and whistled to express +the fervor of his buoyant spirits. He was a hearty and a happy boy. + +Suddenly he came to a fork in the road which he had not noticed when +he came down that way in the morning. For a moment he was puzzled by +the sight. Both were broad and smooth tracks over the grassy prairie, +and both rose and fell over the rolling ground; only, one led to the +left and somewhat southerly, and the other to the right. "Pshaw!" +muttered Sandy, and he paused and rubbed his head for an idea. "That +left-hand road must strike off to some ford lower down on the Fork +than I have ever been. But I never heard of any ford below ours." + +[Illustration: FILLING IN THE CHINKS IN THE WALLS OF THE LOG-CABIN.] + +With that, his keen eyes noticed that the right-hand road was cut and +marked with the many hoof-tracks of a flock of sheep. He argued to +himself that the sheep-drivers had told him that they were going to +California. The California road led up the bank of the Republican Fork +close to the trail that led him from Younkins's to the ford across the +river. The way was plain; so, striking his spur into the old sorrel's +side, he dashed on up the right-hand road, singing gayly as he went. + +Absorbed in the mental calculation as to the number of days that it +would take that flock of sheep to reach California, the boy rode on, +hardly noticing the landmarks by the way, or taking in anything but +the general beauty of the broad and smiling landscape over which the +yellow light of the afternoon sun, sinking in the west, poured a flood +of splendor. Slackening his speed as he passed a low and sunken little +round valley filled with brush and alders, he heard a queer sound like +the playful squealing of some wild animal. Slipping off his saddle and +leading his horse by the bridle over the thick turf, Sandy cautiously +approached the edge of the valley, the margin of which was steep and +well sheltered by a growth of cottonwoods. After peering about for +some time, the lad caught a glimpse of a beautiful sight. A young doe +and her fawn were playing together in the open meadow below, +absolutely unconscious of the nearness of any living thing besides +themselves. The mother-deer was browsing, now and again, and at times +the fawn, playful as a young kitten, would kick its heels, or butt its +head against its mother's side, and both would squeal in a comical +way. + +Sandy had never seen deer in a state of living wildness before, and +his heart thumped heavily in his breast as he gazed on the wonderful +sight. He half groaned to himself that he was a great fool to have +come away from home without a gun. What an easy shot it was! How +nicely he could knock over the mother, if only he had a shot-gun! She +was within such short range. Then he felt a sinking of the heart, as +he imagined the horror of death that would have overtaken the innocent +and harmless creatures, sporting there so thoughtless of man's hunting +instincts and cruelty. Would he kill them, if he had the weapon to +kill with? He could not make up his mind that he would. So he crouched +silently in the underbrush, and watched the pretty sight as if it were +a little animal drama enacted here in the wilderness, mother and child +having a romp in their wildwood home. + +"Well, I'll give them a good scare, anyhow," muttered the boy, his +sportive instincts getting the better of his tender-heartedness at +last. He dashed up noisily from the underbrush, swung his arms, and +shouted, "Boo!" Instantly deer and fawn, with two or three tremendous +bounds, were out of the little valley and far away on the prairie, +skimming over the rolls of green, and before the boy could catch his +breath, they had disappeared into one of the many dells and ravines +that interlaced the landscape. + +But another animal was scared by the boy's shout. In his excitement he +had slipped the bridle-rein from his arm, and the old sorrel, +terrified by his halloo, set off on a brisk trot down the road. In +vain Sandy called to him to stop. Free from guidance, the horse +trotted along, and when, after a long chase, Sandy caught up with his +steed, a considerable piece of road had been covered the wrong way, +for the horse had gone back over the line of march. When Sandy was +once more mounted, and had mopped his perspiring forehead, he cast his +eye along the road, and, to his dismay, discovered that the +sheep-tracks had disappeared. What had become of the sheep? How could +they have left the trail without his sooner noticing it? He certainly +had not passed another fork of the road since coming into this at the +fork below. + +"This is more of my heedlessness, mother would say," muttered Sandy to +himself. "What a big fool I must have been to miss seeing where the +sheep left the trail! I shall never make a good plainsman if I don't +keep my eye skinned better than this. Jingo! it's getting toward +sundown!" Sure enough, the sun was near the horizon, and Sandy could +see none of the familiar signs of the country round about the Fork. + +But he pushed on. It was too late now to return to the fork of the +road and explore the other branch. He was in for it. He remembered, +too, that two of their most distant neighbors, Mr. Fuller and his +wife, lived somewhere back of Battles's place, and it was barely +possible that it was on the creek, whose woody and crooked line he +could now see far to the westward, that their log-cabin was situated. +He had seen Mr. Fuller over at the Fork once or twice, and he +remembered him as a gentle-mannered and kindly man. Surely he must +live on this creek! So he pushed on with new courage, for his heart +had begun to sink when he finally realized that he was far off his +road. + +The sun was down when he reached the creek. No sign of human +habitation was in sight. In those days cabins and settlements were +very, very few and far between, and a traveller once off his trail +might push on for hundreds of miles without finding any trace of human +life. + +In the gathering dusk the heavy-hearted boy rode along the banks of +the creek, anxiously looking out for some sign of settlers. It was +as lonely and solitary as if no man had ever seen its savageness +before. Now and then a night-bird called from a thicket, as if +asking what interloper came into these solitudes; or a scared +jack-rabbit scampered away from his feeding-ground, as the steps of +the horse tore through the underbrush. Even the old sorrel seemed +to gaze reproachfully at the lad, who had dismounted, and now led +the animal through the wild and tangled undergrowths. + +[Illustration: LOST!] + +When he had gone up and down the creek several times, hunting for some +trace of a settlement, and finding none, he reflected that Fuller's +house was on the side of the stream, to the west. It was a very +crooked stream, and he was not sure, in the darkness, which was west +and which was east. But he boldly plunged into the creek, mounting his +horse, and urging the unwilling beast across. Once over, he explored +that side of the stream, hither and yon, in vain. Again he crossed, +and so many times did he cross and recross that he finally had no idea +where he was. Then the conviction came fully into his mind: He was +lost. + +The disconsolate boy sat down on a fallen tree and meditated. It was +useless to go farther. He was tired in every limb and very, very +hungry. He bethought himself of the soda-biscuits in his sack. He need +not starve, at any rate. Dobbin was grazing contentedly while the lad +meditated, so slipping off the saddle and the package attached to it, +Sandy prepared to satisfy his hunger with what little provisions he +had at hand. How queerly the biscuits tasted! Jolting up and down on +the horse's back, they were well broken up. But what was this so hot +in the mouth? Ginger? Sure enough, it was ginger. The pounding that +had crushed the biscuits had broken open the package of ginger, and +that spicy stuff was plentifully sprinkled all over the contents of +the sack. + +"Gingerbread," muttered Sandy, grimly, as he blew out of his mouth +some of the powdery spice. "Faugh! Tobacco!" he cried next. His +father's package of smoking-tobacco had shared the fate of the ginger. +Sandy's supper was spoiled; and resigning himself to spending the +night hungry in the wilderness, he tethered the horse to a tree, put +the saddle-blanket on the ground, arranged the saddle for a pillow, +and, having cut a few leafy boughs from the alders, stuck them into +the turf so as to form a shelter around his head, and lay down to +pleasant dreams. + +"And this is Saturday night, too," thought the lost boy. "They are +having beans baked in the ground-oven at home in the cabin. They are +wondering where I am. What would mother say if she knew I was lost out +here on Flyaway Creek?" And the boy's heart swelled a little, and a +few drops of water stood in his eyes, for he had never been lost +before in his life. He looked up at the leaden sky, now overcast, and +wondered if God saw this lost boy. A few drops fell on his cheek. +Tears? No; worse than that; it was rain. + +"Well, this is a little too much," said Sandy, stoutly. "Here goes for +one more trial." So saying, he saddled and mounted his patient steed, +and, at a venture, took a new direction around a bend in the creek. As +he rounded the bend, the bark of a dog suddenly rung from a mass of +gloom and darkness. How sweet the sound! Regardless of the animal's +angry challenge, he pressed on. That mass of blackness was a +log-barn, and near by was a corral with cows therein. Then a light +shone from the log-cabin, and a man's voice was heard calling the +dog. + +Fuller's! + +The good man of the house received the lad with open arms, and cared +for his horse; inside the cabin, Mrs. Fuller, who had heard the +conversation without, had made ready a great pan of milk and a loaf of +bread, having risen from her bed to care for the young wanderer. Never +did bread and milk taste so deliciously to weary traveller as this! +Full-fed, Sandy looked at the clock on the wall, and marked with +wondering eye that it was past midnight. He had recounted his trials +as he ate, and the sympathizing couple had assured him that he had +been deceived by the sheep-driver. It was very unlikely that he was +driving his flock to California. And it was probable that, coming to +some place affording food and water, the sheep had left the main road +and had camped down in one of the ravines out of sight. + +As Sandy composed his weary limbs in a blanket-lined bunk opposite +that occupied by Fuller and his wife, he was conscious that he gave a +long, long sigh as if in his sleep. And, as he drifted off into +slumber-land, he heard the good woman say, "Well, he's out of his +troubles, poor boy!" Sandy chuckled to himself and slept. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +MORE HOUSE-BUILDING. + + +It was an anxious and wondering household that Sandy burst in upon +next morning, when he had reached the cabin, escorted to the divide +above Younkins's place by his kind-hearted host of the night before. +It was Sunday morning, bright and beautiful; but truly, never had +any home looked so pleasant to his eyes as did the homely and +weather-beaten log-cabin which they called their own while they +lived in it. He had left his borrowed horse with its owner, and, +shouldering his meal-sack, with its dearly bought contents, he had +taken a short-cut to the cabin, avoiding the usual trail in order that +as he approached he might not be seen from the window looking down the +river. + +"Oh, Sandy's all right," he heard his brother Charlie say. "I'll stake +my life that he will come home with flying colors, if you only give +him time. He's lost the trail somehow, and had to put up at some cabin +all night. Don't you worry about Sandy." + +"But these Indian stories; I don't like them," said his father, with a +tinge of sadness in his voice. + +Sandy could bear no more; so, flinging down his burden, he bounced +into the cabin with, "Oh, I'm all right! Safe and sound, but as hungry +as a bear." + +The little party rushed to embrace the young adventurer, and, in their +first flush of surprise, nobody remembered to be severe with him for +his carelessness. Quite the hero of the hour, the lad sat on the table +and told them his tale, how he had lost his way, and how hospitably +and well he had been cared for at Fuller's. + +"Fuller's!" exclaimed his uncle. "What in the world took you so far +off your track as Fuller's? You must have gone at least ten miles out +of your way." + +"Yes, Uncle Charlie," said the boy, "it's just as easy to travel ten +miles out of the way as it is to go one. All you have to do is to get +your face in the wrong way, and all the rest is easy. Just keep +a-going; that's what I did. I turned to the right instead of to the +left, and for once I found that the right was wrong." + +A burst of laughter from Oscar, who had been opening the sack that +held Sandy's purchases, interrupted the story. + +"Just see what a hodgepodge of a mess Sandy has brought home! Tobacco, +biscuits, ginger, and I don't know what not, all in a pudding. It only +lacks milk and eggs to make it a cracker pudding flavored with ginger +and smoking-tobacco!" And everybody joined in the laugh that a glance +at Sandy's load called forth. + +"Yes," said the blushing boy; "I forgot to tie the bag at both ends, +and the jouncing up and down of Younkins's old horse (dear me! wasn't +he a hard trotter!) must have made a mash of everything in the bag. +The paper of tobacco burst, and then I suppose the ginger followed; +the jolting of poor old 'Dobbin' did the rest. Ruined, daddy? Nothing +worth saving?" + +Mr. Howell ruefully acknowledged that the mixture was not good to eat, +nor yet to smoke, and certainly not to make gingerbread of. So, after +picking out some of the larger pieces of the biscuits, the rest was +thrown away, greatly to Sandy's mortification. + +"All of my journey gone for nothing," he said, with a sigh. + +"Never mind, my boy," said his father, fondly; "since you have come +back alive and well, let the rest of the business care for itself. As +long as you are alive, and the redskins have not captured you, I am +satisfied." + +Such was Sandy's welcome home. + +With the following Monday morning came hard work,--harder work, so +Sandy thought, than miserably trying to find one's way in the darkness +of a strange region of country. For another log-house, this time on +the prairie claim, was to be begun at once. They might be called on at +any time to give up the cabin in which they were simply tenants at +will, and it was necessary that a house of some sort be put on the +claim that they had staked out and planted. The corn was up and doing +well. Sun and rain had contributed to hasten on the corn-field, and +the vines of the melons were vigorously pushing their way up and down +the hills of grain. Charlie wondered what they would do with so many +watermelons when they ripened; there would be hundreds of them; and +the mouths that were to eat them, although now watering for the +delicious fruit, were not numerous enough to make away with a +hundredth part of what would be ripe very soon. There was no market +nearer than the post, and there were many melon-patches between +Whittier's and the fort. + +But the new log-house, taken hold of with energy, was soon built up to +the height where the roof was to be put on. At this juncture, Younkins +advised them to roof over the cabin slightly, make a corn-bin of it, +and wait for developments. For, he argued, if there should be any rush +of emigrants and settlers to that part of the country, so that their +claims were in danger of dispute, they would have ample warning, and +could make ready for an immediate occupation of the place. If nobody +came, then the corn-house, or bin, would be all they wanted of the +structure. + +But Mr. Howell, who took the lead in all such matters, shook his head +doubtfully. He was not in favor of evading the land laws; he was more +afraid of the claim being jumped. If they were to come home from a +hunting trip, some time, and find their log-cabin occupied by a +"claim-jumper," or "squatter," as these interlopers are called, and +their farm in the possession of strangers, wouldn't they feel cheap? +He thought so. + +"Say, Uncle Aleck," said Oscar, "why not finish it off as a cabin to +live in, put in the corn when it ripens, and then we shall have the +concern as a dwelling, in case there is any danger of the claim being +jumped?" + +"Great head, Oscar," said his uncle, admiringly. "That is the best +notion yet. We will complete the cabin just as if we were to move into +it, and if anybody who looks like an intended claim-jumper comes +prowling around, we will take the alarm and move in. But so far, I'm +sure, there's been no rush to these parts. It's past planting season, +and it is not likely that anybody will get up this way, now so far +west, without our knowing it." + +So the log-cabin, or, as they called it, "Whittier, Number Two," was +finished with all that the land laws required, with a window filled +with panes of glass, a door, and a "stick chimney" built of sticks +plastered with clay, a floor and space enough on the ground to take +care of a family twice as large as theirs, in case of need. When all +was done, they felt that they were now able to hold their farming +claim as well as their timber claim, for on each was a goodly +log-house, fit to live in and comfortable for the coming winter if +they should make up their minds to live in the two cabins during that +trying season. + +The boys took great satisfaction in their kitchen-garden near the +house in which they were tenants; for when Younkins lived there, he +had ploughed and spaded the patch, and planted it two seasons, so now +it was an old piece of ground compared with the wild land that had +just been broken up around it. In their garden-spot they had planted a +variety of vegetables for the table, and in the glorious Kansas +sunshine, watered by frequent showers, they were thriving wonderfully. +They promised themselves much pleasure and profit from a garden that +they would make by their new cabin, when another summer should come. + +"Younkins says that he can walk all over his melon-patch on the other +side of the Fork, stepping only on the melons and never touching the +ground once," said Oscar, one day, later in the season, as they were +feasting themselves on one of the delicious watermelons that now so +plentifully dotted their own corn-field. + +"What a big story!" exclaimed both of the other boys at once. But +Oscar appealed to his father, who came striding by the edge of the +field where they chatted together. Had he ever heard of such a +thing? + +"Well," said Mr. Bryant, good-naturedly, "I have heard of melons so +thick in a patch, and so big around, that the sunshine couldn't get to +the ground except at high noon. How is that for a tall story?" + +The boys protested that that was only a tale of fancy. Could it be +possible that anybody could raise melons so thickly together as Mr. +Younkins had said he had seen them? Mr. Bryant, having kicked open a +fine melon, took out the heart of it to refresh himself with, as was +the manner of the settlers, where the fruit was so plenty and the +market so far out of reach; then, between long drafts of the delicious +pulp, he explained that certain things, melons for example, flourished +better on the virgin soil of the sod than elsewhere. + +"Another year or so," he said, "and you will never see on this patch +of land such melons as these. They will never do so well again on this +soil as this year. I never saw such big melons as these, and if we had +planted them a little nearer together, I don't in the least doubt that +any smart boy, like Sandy here, could walk all over the field stepping +from one melon to another, if he only had a pole to balance himself +with as he walked. There would be nothing very 'wonderful-like' about +that. It's a pity that we have no use for these, there are so many of +them and they are so good. Pity some of the folks at home haven't a +few of them--a hundred or two, for instance." + +It did seem a great waste of good things that these hundreds and +hundreds of great watermelons should decay on the ground for lack of +somebody to eat them. In the very wantonness of their plenty the +settlers had been accustomed to break open two or three of the finest +of the fruit before they could satisfy themselves that they had got +one of the best. Even then they only took the choicest parts, leaving +the rest to the birds. By night, too, the coyotes, or prairie-wolves, +mean and sneaking things that they were, would steal down into the +melon-patch, and, in the desperation of their hunger, nose into the +broken melons left by the settlers, and attempt to drag away some of +the fragments, all the time uttering their fiendish yelps and howls. + +Somebody had told the boys that the juice of watermelons boiled to a +thick syrup was a very good substitute for molasses. Younkins told +them that, back in old Missouri, "many families never had any other +kind of sweetenin' in the house than watermelon molasses." So Charlie +made an experiment with the juice boiled until it was pretty thick. +All hands tasted it, and all hands voted that it was very poor stuff. +They decided that they could not make their superabundance of +watermelons useful except as an occasional refreshment. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +PLAY COMES AFTER WORK. + + +The two cabins built, wood for the winter cut and hauled, and the +planting all done, there was now nothing left to do but to wait and +see the crop ripen. Their good friend Younkins was in the same +fortunate condition, and he was ready to suggest, to the intense +delight of the boys, that they might be able to run into a herd of +buffalo, if they should take a notion to follow the old Indian trail +out to the feeding-grounds. In those days there was no hunting west of +the new settlement, except that by the Indians. In that vague and +mysterious way by which reports travel--in the air, as it were--among +all frontier settlements, they had heard that buffalo were plenty in +the vast ranges to the westward, the herds moving slowly northward, +grazing as they went. It was now the season of wild game, and so the +boys were sent across to Younkins's to ask him what he thought of a +buffalo-hunting trip. + +Reaching his cabin, the good woman of the house told them that he had +gone into the tall timber near by, thinking he heard some sort of wild +birds in the underbrush. He had taken his gun with him; in fact, +Younkins was seldom seen without his gun, except when he was at work +in the fields. The boys gleefully followed Younkins's trail into the +forest, making for an opening about a half-mile away, where Mrs. +Younkins thought he was most likely to be found. "Major," the big +yellow dog, a special pet of Sandy's, accompanied them, although his +mistress vainly tried to coax him back. Major was fond of boys' +society. + +"There's Younkins now!" cried Oscar, as they drew near an opening in +the wood into which the hot sunlight poured. Younkins was half +crouching and cautiously making his way into the nearer side of the +opening, and the boys, knowing that he was on the track of game, +silently drew near, afraid of disturbing the hunter or the hunted. +Suddenly Major, catching sight of the game, bounded forward with a +loud bark into the tangle of berry bushes and vines. There was a +confused noise of wings, a whistle of alarm which also sounded like +the gobble of a turkey, and four tremendous birds rose up, and with a +motion, that was partly a run and partly a flying, they disappeared +into the depths of the forest. To their intense surprise, the usually +placid Younkins turned savagely upon the dog, and saying, "Drat that +fool dog!" fired one barrel loaded with fine bird-shot into poor +Major. + +"Four as fine wild turkeys as you ever saw in your life!" he +explained, as if in apology to the boys. "I was sure of at least two +of 'em; and that lunkhead of a dog must needs dash in and scare 'em +up. It's too pesky blamed bad!" + +The boys were greatly mortified at the disaster that they had brought +upon Younkins and Major by bringing the dog out with them. But when +Charlie, as the eldest, explained that they had no idea that Major +would work mischief, Younkins said, "Never mind, boys, for you did not +know what was going on-like." + +Younkins, ashamed, apparently, of his burst of temper, stooped down, +and discovering that Major's wounds were not very serious, extracted +the shot, plucked a few leaves of some plant that he seemed to know +all about, and pressed the juice into the wounds made by the shot. The +boys looked on with silent admiration. This man knew everything, they +thought. They had often marvelled to see how easily and unerringly he +found his way through woods, streams, and over prairies; now he showed +them another gift. He was a "natural-born doctor," as his wife proudly +said of him. + +"No turkey for supper to-night," said Younkins, as he picked up his +shot-gun and returned with the boys to the cabin. He was "right glad," +he said, to agree to go on a buffalo hunt, if the rest of the party +would like to go. He knew there must be buffalo off to the westward. +He went with Mr. Fuller and Mr. Battles last year, about this time, +and they had great luck. He would come over that evening and set a +date with the other men for starting out together. + +[Illustration: THEY WERE FEASTING THEMSELVES ON ONE OF THE DELICIOUS +WATERMELONS THAT NOW SO PLENTIFULLY DOTTED THEIR OWN CORN-FIELD.] + +Elated with this ready consent of Younkins, the lads went across the +ford, eager to tell their elders the story of the wild turkeys and +poor Major's exploit. Sandy, carrying his shot-gun on his shoulder, +lingered behind while the other two boys hurried up the trail to the +log-cabin. He fancied that he heard a noise as of ducks quacking, in +the creek that emptied into the Fork just below the ford. So, making +his way softly to the densely wooded bank of the creek, he parted the +branches with great caution and looked in. What a sight it was! At +least fifty fine black ducks were swimming around, feeding and +quacking sociably together, entirely unconscious of the wide-open blue +eyes that were staring at them from behind the covert of the thicket. +Sandy thought them even more wonderful and beautiful than the young +fawn and his dam that he had seen on the Fort Riley trail. For a +moment, fascinated by the rare spectacle, he gazed wonderingly at the +ducks as they swam around, chasing each other, and eagerly hunting for +food. It was but for a moment, however. Then he raised his shot-gun, +and taking aim into the thickest of the flock, fired both barrels in +quick succession. Instantly the gay clamor of the pretty creatures +ceased, and the flock rose with a loud whirring of wings, and wheeled +away over the tree-tops. The surface of the water, to Sandy's excited +imagination, seemed to be fairly covered with birds, some dead, and +some struggling with wounded limbs. The other two boys, startled by +the double report from Sandy's gun, came scampering down the trail, +just as the lad, all excitement, was stripping off his clothes to wade +into the creek for his game. + +"Ducks! Black ducks! I've shot a million of 'em!" cried the boy, +exultingly; and in another instant he plunged into the water up to his +middle, gathering the ducks by the legs and bringing them to the bank, +where Charlie and Oscar, discreetly keeping out of the oozy creek, +received them, counting the birds as they threw them on the grass. + +"Eighteen, all told!" shouted Oscar, when the last bird had been +caught, as it floundered about among the weeds, and brought ashore. + +"Eighteen ducks in two shots!" cried Sandy, his freckled face fairly +beaming with delight. "Did ever anybody see such luck?" + +They all thought that nobody ever had. + +"What's that on your leg?" asked Oscar, stooping to pick from Sandy's +leg a long, brown object looking like a flat worm. To the boys' +intense astonishment, the thing would not come off, but stretched out +several inches in length, holding on by one end. + +Sandy howled with pain. "It is something that bites," he cried. + +"And there's another,--and another! Why, he's covered all over with +'em!" exclaimed Oscar. + +Sure enough, the lad's legs, if not exactly covered, were well +sprinkled with the things. + +"Scrape 'em off with your knife!" cried Sandy. + +Oscar usually carried a sheath-knife at his belt, "more for the style +of the thing, than use," he explained; so with this he quickly took +off the repulsive creatures, which, loosening their hold, dropped to +the ground limp and shapeless. + +"Leeches," said Charlie, briefly, as he poked one of them over with a +stick. The mystery was explained, and wherever one of them had been +attached to the boy's tender skin, blood flowed freely for a few +minutes, and then ceased. Even on one or two of the birds they found a +leech adhering to the feathers where the poor thing's blood had +followed the shot. Picking up the game, the two boys escorted the +elated Sandy to the cabin, where his unexpected adventures made him +the hero of the day. + +"Couldn't we catch some of those leeches and sell them to the +doctors?" asked the practical Oscar. + +His father shook his head. "American wild leeches like those are not +good for much, my son. I don't know why not; but I have been told that +only the imported leeches are used by medical men." + +"Well," said Sandy, tenderly rubbing his wounded legs, "if imported +leeches can bite any more furiously than these Kansas ones do, I don't +want any of them to tackle me! I suppose these were hungry, though, +not having had a taste of a fresh Illinois boy lately. But they didn't +make much out of me, after all." + +Very happy were those three boys that evening, as, filled with roast +wild duck, they sat by and heard their elders discuss with Younkins +the details of the grand buffalo hunt that was now to be organized. +Younkins had seen Mr. Fuller, who had agreed to make one of the party. +So there would be four men and the three boys to compose the +expedition. They were to take two horses, Fuller's and Younkins's, to +serve as pack-animals, for the way to the hunting-ground might be +long; but the hunting was to be done on foot. Younkins was very sure +that they would have no difficulty in getting near enough to shoot; +the animals had not been hunted much in those parts at that time, and +the Indians killed them on foot very often. If Indians could do that, +why could not white men? + +The next two days were occupied in preparations for the expedition, to +the great delight of the boys, who recalled with amusement something +of a similar feeling that they had when they were preparing for their +trip to Kansas, long ago, away back in Dixon. How far off that all +seemed now! Now they were in the promised land, and were going out to +hunt for big game--buffalo! It seemed too good to be true. + +Bread was made and baked; smoked side-meat, and pepper and salt +packed; a few potatoes taken, as a luxury in camp-life; blankets, +guns, and ammunition prepared; and above all, plenty of coffee, +already browned and ground, was packed for use. It was a merry and a +buoyant company that started out in the early dawn of a September +morning, having snatched a hasty breakfast, of which the excited boys +had scarcely time to taste. Buffalo beef, they confidently said, was +their favorite meat. They would dine on buffalo hump that very day. + +Oscar, more cautious than the others, asked Younkins if they were sure +to see buffalo soon. + +"Surely," replied he; "I was out to the bend of the Fork just above +the bluffs, last night, and the plains were just full of 'em, just +simply black-like, as it were." + +"What?" exclaimed all three boys, in a breath. "Plains full of them, +and you didn't even mention it! What a funny man you are." + +Mr. Howell reminded them that Mr. Younkins had been accustomed to see +buffalo for so long that he did not think it anything worth mentioning +that he had seen vast numbers of the creatures already. So, as they +pressed on, the boys strained their eyes in the distance, looking for +buffalo. But no animals greeted their sight, as they passed over the +long green swales of the prairie, mile after mile, now rising to the +top of a little eminence, and now sinking into a shallow valley; but +occasionally a sneaking, stealthy coyote would noiselessly trot into +view, and then, after cautiously surveying them from a distance, +disappear, as Sandy said, "as if he had sunk into a hole in the +ground." It was in vain that they attempted to get near enough to one +of these wary animals to warrant a shot. It is only by great good luck +that anybody ever shoots a coyote, although in countries where they +abound every man's hand is against them; they are such arrant thieves, +as well as cowards. + +But at noon, while the little party was taking a luncheon in the shade +of a solitary birch that grew by the side of a little creek, or +runlet, Sandy, the irrepressible, with his bread and meat in his hand, +darted off to the next roll of the prairie, a high and swelling hill, +in fact, "to see what he could see." As soon as the lad had reached +the highest part of the swale, he turned around and swung his arms +excitedly, too far off to make his voice heard. He jumped up and down, +whirled his arms, and acted altogether like a young lunatic. + +"The boy sees buffalo," said Younkins, with a smile of calm amusement. +He could hardly understand why anybody should be excited over so +commonplace a matter. But the other two lads were off like a shot in +Sandy's direction. Reaching their comrade, they found him in a state +of great agitation. "Oh, look at 'em! Look at 'em! Millions on +millions! Did anybody ever see the like?" + +Perhaps Sandy's estimate of the numbers was a little exaggerated, but +it really was a wonderful sight. The rolls of the prairie, four or +five miles away, were dark with the vast and slow-moving herds that +were passing over, their general direction being toward the spot on +which the boys were standing. Now and again, some animals strayed off +in broken parties, but for the most part the phalanx seemed to be +solid, so solid that the green of the earth was completely hidden by +the dense herd. + +The boys stood rooted to the spot with the intensity of their wonder +and delight. If there were not millions in that vast army of buffalo, +there were certainly hundreds of thousands. What would happen if that +great mob should suddenly take a notion to gallop furiously in their +direction? + +"You needn't whisper so," said Charlie, noticing the awe-struck tones +of the youngsters. "They can't hear you, away off there. Why, the very +nearest of the herd cannot be less than five miles off; and they would +run from us, rather than toward us, if they were to see and hear us." + +"I asked Younkins if he ever had any trouble with a buffalo when he +was hunting, and what do you suppose he said?" asked Oscar, who had +recovered his voice. "Well, he said that once he was out on horseback, +and had cornered a young buffalo bull in among some limestone ledges +up there on the Upper Fork, and 'the critter turned on him and made a +nasty noise with his mouth-like,' so that he was glad to turn and run. +'Nasty noise with his mouth,' I suppose was a sort of a snort--a +snort-like, as Younkins would say. There come the rest of the folks. +My! won't daddy be provoked that we didn't go back and help hitch +up!" + +But the elders of the party had not forgotten that they were once boys +themselves, and when they reached the point on which the lads stood +surveying the sight, they also were stirred to enthusiasm. The great +herd was still moving on, the dark folds of the moving mass undulating +like the waves of a sea, as the buffalo rose and fell upon the surface +of the rolling prairie. + +As if the leaders had spied the hunters, the main herd now swung away +more to the right, or northward, only a few detached parties coming +toward the little group of hunters that still watched them silently +from its elevated point of observation. + +Younkins surveyed the movement critically and then announced it as his +opinion that the herd was bound for the waters of the Republican Fork, +to the right and somewhat to the northward of the party. The best +course for them to take now would be to try and cut off the animals +before they could reach the river. There was a steep and bluffy bank +at the point for which the buffalo seemed to be aiming; that would +divert them further up stream, and if the hunters could only creep +along in the low gullies of the prairie, out of the sight of the herd, +they might reach the place where the buffalo would cross before they +could get there; for the herd moved slowly; an expert walker could far +out-travel them in a direct line. + +"One of you boys will have to stay here by the stuff; the rest of us +will press on in the direction of the river as fast as may be," said +Uncle Aleck. The boys looked at each other in dismay. Who would be +willing to be left behind in a chase so exciting as this? Sandy +bravely solved the puzzle. + +"Here, you take my shot-gun, Charlie," he said. "It carries farther +than yours; I'll stay by the stuff and the horses; I'm pretty tired, +anyhow." His father smiled approvingly, but said nothing. He knew how +great a sacrifice the boy was making for the others. + +Left alone on the hill-top, for the rest of the party moved silently +and swiftly away to the northward, Sandy felt the bitterness of +disappointment as well as of loneliness while he sat on the grass +watching with absorbed attention the motions of the great herds. All +trace of his companions was soon lost as they passed down into the +gullies and ravines that broke the ground adjacent to the Fork to the +westward of the stream. Once, indeed, he saw the figures of the +hunters, painted dark against the sky, rise over a distant swell and +disappear just as one of them turned and waved a signal in dumb show +to the solitary watcher on the hill. + +"If those buffalo should get stampeded," mused Sandy, "and make a +break in this way, it would be 'all day' with those horses and the +camp stuff. I guess I had better make all fast, for there may be a +gale of wind, or a gale of buffalo, which is the same thing." So +saying, the thoughtful lad led the animals down into the gully where +the noon luncheon had been taken, removed their packs, tethered them +to the tree, and then ran back to the hill-top and resumed his watch. + +There was no change in the situation except that there were, if +possible, more buffalo moving over the distant slopes of the rolling +prairie. The boy stood entranced at the sight. More, more, and yet +more of the herds were slowly moving into sight and then disappearing +in the gullies below. The dark brown folds seemed to envelop the face +of the earth. Sandy wondered where so many creatures could find +pasturage. Their bodies appeared to cover the hills and valleys, so +that there could not be room left for grazing. "They've got such big +feet," he soliloquized aloud, "that I should think that the ground +would be all pawed up where they have travelled." In the ecstasy of +his admiration, he walked to and fro on the hill-top, talking to +himself, as was his wont. + +"I wonder if the other fellows can see them as I do?" he asked. "I +don't believe, after all, that it is one-half so entertaining for them +as it is for me. Oh, I just wish the folks at home could be here now, +and see this sight. It beats all nature, as Father Dixon used to say. +And to think that there are thousands of people in big cities who +don't have meat enough to eat. And all this buffalo-meat running +wild!" The boy laughed to himself at the comicality of the thought. +"Fresh beef running wild!" + +The faint report of a gun fired afar off now reached his ear and he +saw a blue puff of smoke rising from the crest of a timber-bordered +hill far away. The herd in that direction seemed to swerve somewhat +and scatter, but, to his intense surprise, there was no hurry in their +movements; the brown and black folds of the great mass of animals +still slowly and sluggishly spread out and flowed like the tides of +the sea, enveloping everything. Suddenly there was another report, +then another, and another. Three shots in quick succession. + +"Now they are getting in their work!" shouted the boy, fairly dancing +up and down in his excitement. "Oh, I wish I was there instead of here +looking on!" + +Now the herds wavered for a moment, then their general direction was +changed from the northward to the eastward. Then there was a swift and +sudden movement of the whole mass, and the vast dark stream flowed in +a direction parallel with the Fork instead of toward it, as +heretofore. + +"They are coming this way!" shouted Sandy, to the empty, silent air +around him. "I'll get a shot at 'em yet!" Then, suddenly recollecting +that his gun had been exchanged for his brother's, he added, "And +Charlie's gun is no good!" + +In truth, the herd was now bound straight for the hill on which the +boy maintained his solitary watch. Swiftly running down to the gully +in which the horses were tethered, Sandy got out his brother's gun and +carefully examined the caps and the load. They had run some heavy +slugs of lead in a rude mould which they had made, the slug being just +the size of the barrel of the shot-gun. One barrel was loaded with a +heavy charge of buckshot, and the other with a slug. The latter was an +experiment, and a big slug like that could not be expected to carry +very far; it might, however, do much damage at short range. + +Running up to the head of the gully, which was in the nature of a +shallow ravine draining the hill above, Sandy emerged on the highest +point of land, a few hundred feet to the right and north of his former +post of observation. The herd was in full drive directly toward him. +Suppose they should come driving down over the hills where he was! +They would sweep down into the gully, stampede the horses, and +trample all the camp stuff into bits! The boy fairly shook with +excitement as the idea struck him. On they came, the solid ground +shaking under their thundering tread. + +"I must try to head 'em off," said the boy to himself. "The least I +can do is to scare them a good bit, and then they'll split in two and +the herd will divide right here. But I must get a shot at one, or the +other fellows will laugh at me." + +The rushing herd was headed right for the spot where Sandy stood, +spreading out to the left and right, but with the centre of the +phalanx steering in a bee-line for the lad. Thoroughly alarmed now, +Sandy looked around, and perceiving a sharp outcropping of the +underlying stratum of limestone at the head of the little ravine, he +resolved to shelter himself behind that, in case the buffalo should +continue to come that way. Notwithstanding his excitement, the lad did +not fail to note two discharges, one after the other, in the distance, +showing that his friends were still keeping up a fusillade against the +flying herds. + +At the second shot, Sandy thought that the masses in the rear swung +off more to the southward, as if panic-stricken by the firing, but the +advance guard still maintained a straight line for him. There was no +escape from it now, and Sandy looked down at the two horses tethered +in the ravine below, peacefully grazing the short, thick grass, +unconscious of the flood of buffalo undulating over the prairie above +them, and soon to swoop down over the hill-side where they were. In +another instant the lad could see the tossing, shaggy manes of the +leaders of the herd, and could even distinguish the redness of their +eyes as they swept up the incline, at the head of which he stood. He +hastily dodged behind the crag of rock; it was a small affair, hardly +higher than his head, but wide enough, he thought, to divide the herd +when they came to it. So he ducked behind it and waited for coming +events. + +Sandy was right. Just beyond the rock behind which he was crouched, +the ground fell off rapidly and left a stiff slope, up which even a +stampeded buffalo would hardly climb. The ground trembled as the vast +army of living creatures came tumbling and thundering over the +prairie. Sandy, stooping behind the outcropping, also trembled, partly +with excitement and partly with fear. If the buffalo were to plunge +over the very small barrier between him and them, his fate was sealed. +For an instant his heart stood still. It was but for an instant, for, +before he could draw a long breath, the herd parted on the two sides +of the little crag. The divided stream poured down on both sides of +him, a tumultuous, broken, and disorderly torrent of animals, making +no sound except for the ceaseless beat of their tremendous hoofs. +Sandy's eyes swam with the bewildering motion of the living stream. +For a brief space he saw nothing but a confused mass of heads, backs, +and horns, hundreds of thousands flowing tumultuously past. Gradually +his sense of security came back to him, and, exulting in his safety, +he raised his gun, and muttering under his breath, "Right behind the +fore-shoulder-like, Younkins said," he took steady aim and fired. A +young buffalo bull tumbled headlong down the ravine. In their mad +haste, a number of the animals fell over him, pell-mell, but, +recovering themselves with incredible swiftness, they skipped to their +feet, and were speedily on their way down the hill. Sandy watched, +with a beating heart, the young bull as he fell heels over head two or +three times before he could rally; the poor creature got upon his +feet, fell again, and while the tender-hearted boy hesitated whether +to fire the second barrel or not, finally fell over on his side +helpless. + +Meanwhile the ranks of buffalo coming behind swerved from the fallen +animal to the left and right, as if by instinct, leaving an open space +all around the point where the boy stood gazing at his fallen game. He +fired, almost at random, at the nearest of the flying buffalo; but the +buckshot whistled hurtlessly among the herd, and Sandy thought to +himself that it was downright cruelty to shoot among them, for the +scattering shot would only wound without killing the animals. + +It was safe now for Sandy to emerge from his place of concealment, +and, standing on the rocky point behind which he had been hidden, he +gazed to the west and north. The tumbling masses of buffalo were +scattered far apart. Here and there he could see wide stretches of +prairie, no longer green, but trampled into a dull brown by the tread +of myriads of hurrying feet; and far to the north the land was clear, +as if the main herd had passed down to the southward. Scattered bands +still hurried along above him, here and there, nearer to the Fork, but +the main herd had gone on in the general direction of the settlers' +home. + +"What if they have gone down to our cabin?" he muttered aloud. "It's +all up with any corn-field that they run across. But, then, they must +have kept too far to the south to get anywhere near our claim." And +the lad consoled himself with this reflection. + +But his game was more engrossing of his attention just now than +anything else. He had been taught that an animal should not bleed to +death through a gunshot wound. His big leaden slug had gone directly +through the buffalo's vitals somewhere, for it was now quite dead. +Sandy stood beside the noble beast with a strange elation, looking at +it before he could make up his mind to cut its throat and let out the +blood. It was a young bull buffalo that lay before him, the short, +sharp horns ploughed into the ground, and the massive form, so lately +bounding over the rolling prairie, forever still. To Sandy it all +seemed like a dream, it had come and gone so quickly. His heart +misgave him as he looked, for Sandy had a tender heart. Then he gently +touched the animal with the toe of his boot and cried, "All by my own +self!" + +[Illustration: HE GENTLY TOUCHED THE ANIMAL WITH THE TOE OF HIS BOOT AND +CRIED, "ALL BY MY OWN SELF."] + +"Well done, Sandy!" The boy started, turned, and beheld his cousin +Oscar gazing open-mouthed at the spectacle. "And did you shoot him all +by your very own self? What with? Charlie's gun?" The lad poured forth +a torrent of questions, and Sandy proudly answered them all with, +"That is what I did." + +As the two boys hung with delight over the prostrate beast, Oscar told +the tale of disappointment that the others had to relate. They had +gone up the ravines that skirted the Fork, prowling on their hands and +knees; but the watchers of the herd were too wary to let the hunters +get near enough for a good shot. They had fired several times, but had +brought down nothing. Sandy had heard the shots? Yes, Sandy had heard, +and had hoped that somebody was having great sport. After all, he +thought, as he looked at the fallen monarch of the prairie, it was +rather cruel business. Oscar did not think so; he wished he had had +such luck. + +The rest of the party now came up, one after another, and all gave a +whoop of astonishment and delight at Sandy's great success as soon as +they saw his noble quarry. + +The sun was now low in the west; here was a good place for camping; a +little brush would do for firing, and water was close at hand. So the +tired hunters, after a brief rest, while they lay on the trampled +grass and recounted the doings of the day, went to work at the game. +The animal was dressed, and a few choice pieces were hung on the tree +to cool for their supper. It was dark when they gathered around their +cheerful fire, as the cool autumnal evening came on, and cooked and +ate with infinite zest their first buffalo-meat. Boys who have never +been hungry with the hunger of a long tramp over the prairies, hungry +for their first taste of big game of their own shooting, cannot +possibly understand how good to the Boy Settlers was their supper on +the wind-swept slopes of the Kansas plains. + +Wrapping themselves as best they could in the blankets and buffalo-robes +brought from home, the party lay down in the nooks and corners of +the ravine, first securing the buffalo-meat on the tree that made +their camp. + +"What, for goodness' sake, is that?" asked Charlie, querulously, as he +was roused out of his sleep by a dismal cry not far away in the +darkness. + +"Wolves," said Younkins, curtly, as he raised himself on one elbow to +listen. "The pesky critters have smelt blood; they would smell it if +they were twenty miles off, I do believe, and they are gathering round +as they scent the carcass." + +By this, all of the party were awake except Sandy, who, worn out with +excitement, perhaps, slept on through all the fearful din. The mean +little prairie-wolves gathered, and barked, and snarled, in the +distance. Nearer, the big wolves howled like great dogs, their long +howl occasionally breaking into a bark; and farther and farther off, +away in the extremest distance, they could hear other wolves, whose +hollow-sounding cry seemed like an echo of their more fortunate +brethren, nearer the game. A party of the creatures were busy at the +offal from the slain buffalo, just without the range of the firelight, +for the camp-fire had been kept alight. Into the struggling, snarling +group Younkins discharged his rifle. There was a sharp yell of pain, a +confused patter of hurrying feet, and in an instant all was still. + +Sandy started up. "Who's shot another buffalo?" he asked, as if +struggling with a dream. The others laughed, and Charlie explained +what had been going on, and the tired boy lay down to sleep again. But +that was not a restful night for any of the campers. The wolves +renewed their howling. The hunters were able to snatch only a few +breaths of sleep from time to time, in moments when the dismal +ululation of the wolf-chorus subsided. The sun rose, flooding the +rolling prairies with a wealth of golden sunshine. The weary campers +looked over the expanse around them, but not a remnant of the +rejected remains of the buffalo was to be seen; and in all the +landscape about, no sign of any living thing was in sight, save where +some early-rising jack-rabbit scudded over the torn sod, hunting for +his breakfast. + +Fresh air, bright sunlight, and a dip in a cool stream are the best +correctives for a head heavy with want of sleep; and the hunters, +refreshed by these and a pot of strong and steaming coffee, were soon +ready for another day's sport. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +A GREAT DISASTER. + + +The hunters had better success on their second day's search for +buffalo; for they not only found the animals, but they killed three. +The first game of the day was brought down by Younkins, who was the +"guide, philosopher, and friend" of the party, and Oscar, the youngest +of them all, slew the second. The honor of bringing down the third and +last was Uncle Aleck's. When he had killed his game, he was anxious to +get home as soon as possible, somewhat to the amusement of the others, +who rallied him on his selfishness. They hinted that he would not be +so ready to go home, if he yet had his buffalo to kill, as had some of +the others. + +"I'm worried about the crop, to tell the truth," said Mr. Howell. "If +that herd of buffalo swept down on our claim, there's precious little +corn left there now; and it seemed to me that they went in that +direction." + +"If that's the case," said the easy-going Younkins, "what's the use of +going home? If the corn is gone, you can't get it back by looking at +the place where it was." + +They laughed at this cool and practical way of looking at things, and +Uncle Aleck was half ashamed to admit he wanted to be rid of his +present suspense, and could not be satisfied until he had settled in +his mind all that he dreaded and feared. + +It was a long and wearisome tramp homeward. But they had been more +successful than they had hoped or expected, and the way did not +seem so long as it would if they had been empty-handed. The choicest +parts of their game had been carefully cooled by hanging in the dry +Kansas wind, over night, and were now loaded upon the pack-animals. +There was enough and more than enough for each of the three families +represented in the party; and they had enjoyed many a savory +repast of buffalo-meat cooked hunter-fashion before an open camp-fire, +while their expedition lasted. So they hailed with pleasure the +crooked line of bluffs that marks the big bend of the Republican +Fork near which the Whittier cabin was built. Here and there they +had crossed the trail, broad and well pounded, of the great herd that +had been stampeded on the first day of their hunt. But for the most +part the track of the animal multitude bore off more to the south, and +the hunters soon forgot their apprehensions of danger to the +corn-fields left unfenced on their claim. + +It was sunset when the weary pilgrims reached the bluff that +overlooked the Younkins cabin where the Dixon party temporarily +dwelt. The red light of the sun deluged with splendor the waving grass +of the prairie below them, and jack-rabbits scurrying hither and yon +were the only signs of life in the peaceful picture. Tired as he was, +Oscar could not resist taking a shot at one of the flying creatures; +but before he could raise his gun to his shoulder, the long-legged, +long-eared rabbit was out of range. Running briskly for a little +distance, it squatted in the tall grass. Piqued at this, Oscar +stealthily followed on the creature's trail. "It will make a nice +change from so much buffalo-meat," said the lad to himself, "and if I +get him into the corn-field, he can't hide so easily." + +He saw Jack's long ears waving against the sky on the next rise of +ground, as he muttered this to himself, and he pressed forward, +resolved on one parting shot. He mounted the roll of the prairie, and +before him lay the corn-field. It was what had been a corn-field! +Where had stood, on the morning of their departure, a glorious field +of gold and green, the blades waving in the breeze like banners, +was now a mass of ruin. The tumultuous drove had plunged down over +the ridge above the field, and had fled, in one broad swath of +destruction, straight over every foot of the field, their trail +leaving a brown and torn surface on the earth, wide on both sides +of the plantation. Scarcely a trace of greenness was left where once +the corn-field had been. Here and there, ears of grain, broken and +trampled into the torn earth, hinted what had been; but for the most +part hillock, stalk, corn-blade, vine, and melon were all crushed +into an indistinguishable confusion, muddy and wrecked. + +Oscar felt a shudder pass down his back, and his knees well-nigh gave +way under him as he caught a glimpse of the ruin that had been +wrought. Tears were in his eyes, and, unable to raise a shout, he +turned and wildly waved his hands to the party, who had just then +reached the door of the cabin. His Uncle Aleck had been watching the +lad, and as he saw him turn he exclaimed, "Oscar has found the buffalo +trail over the corn-field!" + +The whole party moved quickly in the direction of the plantation. When +they reached the rise of ground overlooking the field, Oscar, still +unable to speak, turned and looked at his father with a face of grief. +Uncle Aleck, gazing on the wreck and ruin, said only, "A whole +summer's work gone!" + +"A dearly bought buffalo-hunt!" remarked Younkins. + +"That's so, neighbor," added Mr. Bryant, with the grimmest sort of a +smile; and then the men fell to talking calmly of the wonderful amount +of mischief that a drove of buffalo could do in a few minutes, even +seconds, of time. Evidently, the animals had not stopped to snatch a +bite by the way. They had not tarried an instant in their wild course. +Down the slope of the fields they had hurried in a mad rush, plunged +into the woody creek below, and, leaving the underbrush and vines +broken and flattened as if a tornado had passed through the land, had +thundered away across the flat floor of the bottom-land on the further +side of the creek. A broad brown track behind them showed that they +had then fled into the dim distance of the lands of the Chapman's +Creek region. + +There was nothing to be done, and not much to be said. So, parting +with their kindly and sympathizing neighbors, the party went +sorrowfully home. + +"Well," said Uncle Aleck, as soon as they were alone together, "I am +awful sorry that we have lost the corn; but I am not so sure that it +is so very great a loss, after all." + +The boys looked at him with amazement, and Sandy said,-- + +"Why, daddy, it's the loss of a whole summer; isn't it? What are we +going to live on this whole winter that's coming, now that we have no +corn to sell?" + +"There's no market for free-State corn in these parts, Sandy," replied +his father; and, seeing the look of inquiry on the lad's face, he +explained: "Mr. Fuller tells us that the officer at the post, the +quartermaster at Fort Riley who buys for the Government, will buy no +grain from free-State men. Several from the Smoky Hill and from +Chapman's have been down there to find a market, and they all say the +same thing. The sutler at the post, Sandy's friend, told Mr. Fuller +that it was no use for any free-State man to come there with anything +to sell to the Government, at any price. And there is no other good +market nearer than the Missouri, you all know that,--one hundred and +fifty miles away." + +"Well, I call that confoundedly mean!" cried Charlie, with fiery +indignation. "Do you suppose, father, that they have from Washington +any such instructions to discriminate against us?" + +"I cannot say as to that, Charlie," replied his father; "I only tell +you what the other settlers report; and it sounds reasonable. That is +why the ruin of the corn-field is not so great a misfortune as it +might have been." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE WOLF AT THE DOOR. + + +Uncle Aleck and Mr. Bryant had gone over to Chapman's Creek to make +inquiries about the prospect of obtaining corn for their cattle +through the coming winter, as the failure of their own crop had made +that the next thing to be considered. The three boys were over at the +Younkins cabin in quest of news from up the river, where, it was said, +a party of California emigrants had been fired upon by the Indians. +They found that the party attacked was one coming from California, not +migrating thither. It brought the Indian frontier very near the boys +to see the shot-riddled wagons, left at Younkins's by the travellers. +The Cheyennes had shot into the party and had killed four and wounded +two, at a point known as Buffalo Creek, some one hundred miles or so +up the Republican Fork. It was a daring piece of effrontery, as there +were two military posts not very far away, Fort Kearney above and Fort +Riley below. + +"But they are far enough away by this time," said Younkins, with some +bitterness. "Those military posts are good for nothin' but to run to +in case of trouble. No soldiers can get out into the plains from any +of them quick enough to catch the slowest Indian of the lot." + +Charlie was unwilling to disagree with anything that Younkins said, +for he had the highest respect for the opinions of this experienced +old plainsman. But he couldn't help reminding him that it would take a +very big army to follow up every stray band of Indians, provided any +of the tribes should take a notion to go on the warpath. + +"Just about this time, though, the men that were stationed at Fort +Riley are all down at Lawrence to keep the free-State people from +sweeping the streets with free-State brooms, or something that-a-way," +said Younkins, determined to have his gibe at the useless soldiery, as +he seemed to think them. Oscar was interested at once. Anything that +related to the politics of Kansas the boy listened to greedily. + +"It's something like this," explained Younkins. "You see the +free-State men have got a government there at Lawrence which is lawful +under the Topeka Legislator', as it were. The border-State men have +got a city government under the Lecompton Legislatur'; and so the two +are quarrelling to see which shall govern the city; 'tisn't much of a +city, either." + +"But what have the troops from Fort Riley to do with it? I don't see +that yet," said Oscar, with some heat. + +[Illustration: A GREAT DISASTER.] + +"Well," said Younkins, "I am a poor hand at politics; but the way I +understand it is that the Washington Government is in favor of the +border-State fellows, and so the troops have been sent down to stand +by the mayor that belongs to the Lecompton fellows. Leastways, that is +the way the sutler down to the post put it to me when I was down there +with the folks that were fired on up to Buffalo Creek; I talked with +him about it yesterday. That's why I said they were at Lawrence to +prevent the streets being swept by free-State brooms. That is the +sutler's joke. See?" + +"That's what I call outrageous," cried Oscar, his eyes snapping with +excitement. "Here's a people up here on the frontier being massacred +by Indians, while the Government troops are down at Lawrence in a +political quarrel!" + +The boys were so excited over this state of things that they paid very +little attention to anything else while on their way back to the +cabin, full of the news of the day. Usually, there was not much news +to discuss on the Fork. + +"What's that by the cabin-door?" said Sandy, falling back as he looked +up the trail and beheld a tall white, or light gray, animal smelling +around the door-step of the cabin, only a half-mile away. It seemed to +be about as large as a full-grown calf, and it moved stealthily about, +and yet with a certain unconcern, as if not used to being scared +easily. + +"It's a wolf!" cried Oscar. "The Sunday that Uncle Aleck and I saw one +from the bluff yonder, he was just like that. Hush, Sandy, don't talk +so loud, or you'll frighten him off before we can get a crack at him. +Let's go up the trail by the ravine, and perhaps we can get a shot +before he sees us." + +It was seldom that the boys stirred abroad without firearms of some +sort. This time they had a shot-gun and a rifle with them, and, +examining the weapons as they went, they ran down into a dry gully, to +follow which would bring them unperceived almost as directly to the +cabin as by the regular trail. As noiselessly as possible, the boys +ran up the gully trail, their hearts beating high with expectation. It +would be a big feather in their caps if they could only have a gray +wolf's skin to show their elders on their return from Chapman's. + +"You go round the upper side of the house with your rifle, Oscar, and +I'll go round the south side with the shot-gun," was Charlie's advice +to his cousin when they had reached the spring at the head of the +gully, back of the log-cabin. With the utmost caution, the two boys +crept around opposite corners of the house, each hoping he would be +lucky enough to secure the first shot. Sandy remained behind, waiting +with suppressed excitement for the shot. Instead of the report of a +firearm, he heard a peal of laughter from both boys. + +"What is it?" he cried, rushing from his place of concealment. "What's +the great joke?" + +"Nothing," said Oscar, laughing heartily, "only that as I was stealing +around the corner here by the corral, Charlie was tiptoeing round the +other corner with his eyes bulging out of his head as if he expected +to see that wolf." + +"Yes," laughed Charlie, "and if Oscar had been a little quicker, he +would have fired at me. He had his gun aimed right straight ahead as +he came around the corner of the cabin." + +"And that wolf is probably miles and miles away from here by this +time, while you two fellows were sneaking around to find him. Just as +if he was going to wait here for you!" It was Sandy's turn to laugh, +then. + +The boys examined the tracks left in the soft loam of the garden by +the strange animal, and came to the conclusion that it must have been +a very large wolf, for its footsteps were deep as if it were a heavy +creature, and their size was larger than that of any wolf-tracks they +had ever seen. + +When the elders heard the story on their arrival from Chapman's, that +evening, Uncle Aleck remarked with some grimness, "So the wolf is at +the door at last, boys." The lads by this understood that poverty +could not be far off; but they could not comprehend that poverty could +affect them in a land where so much to live upon was running wild, so +to speak. + +"Who is this that rides so fast?" queried Charlie, a day or two after +the wolf adventure, as he saw a stranger riding up the trail from the +ford. It was very seldom that any visitor, except the good Younkins, +crossed their ford. And Younkins always came over on foot. + +Here was a horseman who rode as if in haste. The unaccustomed sight +drew all hands around the cabin to await the coming of the stranger, +who rode as if he were on some important errand bent. It was Battles. +His errand was indeed momentous. A corporal from the post had come to +his claim, late in the night before, bidding him warn all the settlers +on the Fork that the Cheyennes were coming down the Smoky Hill, +plundering, burning, and slaying the settlers. Thirteen white people +had been killed in the Smoky Hill country, and the savages were +evidently making their way to the fort, which at that time was left in +an unprotected condition. The commanding officer sent word to all +settlers that if they valued their lives they would abandon their +claims and fly to the fort for safety. Arms and ammunition would be +furnished to all who came. Haste was necessary, for the Indians were +moving rapidly down the Smoky Hill. + +"But the Smoky Hill is twenty-five or thirty miles from here," said +Mr. Bryant; "why should they strike across the plains between here and +there?" + +Battles did not know; but he supposed, from his talk with the +corporal, that it was expected that the Cheyennes would not go quite +to the fort, but, having raided the Smoky Hill country down as near to +the post as might seem safe, they would strike across to the +Republican Fork at some narrow point between the two rivers, travel up +that stream, and so go back to the plains from which they came, +robbing and burning by the way. + +The theory seemed a reasonable one. Such a raid was like Indian +warfare. + +"How many men are there at the post?" asked Uncle Aleck. + +"Ten men including the corporal and a lieutenant of cavalry," replied +Battles, who was a pro-slavery man. "The rest are down at Lawrence to +suppress the rebellion." + +"So the commanding officer at the post wants us to come down and help +defend the fort, which has been left to take care of itself while the +troops are at Lawrence keeping down the free-State men," said Mr. +Bryant, bitterly. "For my part, I don't feel like going. How is it +with you, Aleck?" + +"I guess we had better take care of ourselves and the boys, Charlie," +said Uncle Aleck, cheerily. "It's pretty mean for Uncle Sam to leave +the settlers to take care of themselves and the post at this critical +time, I know; but we can't afford to quibble about that now. Safety is +the first consideration. What does Younkins say?" he asked of +Battles. + +"A randyvoo has been appointed at my house to-night," said the man, +"and Younkins said he would be there before sundown. He told me to +tell you not to wait for him; he would meet you there. He has sent his +wife and children over to Fuller's, and Fuller has agreed to send them +with Mrs. Fuller over to the Big Blue, where there is no danger. +Fuller will be back to my place by midnight. There is no time to fool +away." + +Here was an unexpected crisis. The country was evidently alarmed and +up in arms. An Indian raid, even if over twenty miles away, was a +terror that they had not reckoned on. After a hurried consultation, +the Whittier settlers agreed to be at the "randyvoo," as Battles +called it, before daybreak next morning. They thought it best to take +his advice and hide what valuables they had in the cabin, make all +snug, and leave things as if they never expected to see their home +again, and take their way to the post as soon as possible. + +[Illustration: THE RETREAT TO BATTLES'S.] + +It was yet early morning, for Mr. Battles had wasted no time in +warning the settlers as soon as he had received notice from the fort. +They had all the day before them for their preparations. So the +settlers, leaving other plans for the time, went zealously to work +packing up and secreting in the thickets and the gully the things they +thought most valuable and they were least willing to spare. Clothing, +crockery, and table knives and forks were wrapped up in whatever came +handy and were buried in holes dug in the ploughed ground. Lead, +bullets, slugs, and tools of various kinds were buried or concealed in +the forks of trees, high up and out of sight. Where any articles were +buried in the earth, a fire was afterwards built on the surface so +that no trace of the disturbed ground should be left to show the +expected redskins that goods had been there concealed. They lamented +that a sack of flour and a keg of molasses could not be put away, and +that their supply of side-meat, which had cost them a long journey to +Manhattan, must be abandoned to the foe--if he came to take it. But +everything that could be hidden in trees or buried in the earth was so +disposed of as rapidly as possible. + +Perhaps the boys, after the first flush of apprehension had passed, +rather enjoyed the novelty and the excitement. Their spirits rose as +they privately talked among themselves of the real Indian warfare of +which this was a foretaste. They hoped that it would be nothing worse. +When the last preparations were made, and they were ready to depart +from their home, uncertain whether they would ever see it again, +Sandy, assisted by Oscar, composed the following address. It was +written in a big, boyish hand on a sheet of letter-paper, and was left +on the table in the middle of their cabin:-- + + GOOD MISTER INDIAN: We are leaving in a hurry and we want you to + be careful of the fire when you come. Don't eat the corn-meal in + the sack in the corner; it is poisoned. The flour is full of + crickets, and crickets are not good for the stomach. Don't fool + with the matches, nor waste the molasses. Be done as you would + do by, for that is the golden rule. + + Yours truly, + THE WHITTIER SETTLERS. + +Even in the midst of their uneasiness and trouble, their elders +laughed at this unique composition, although Mr. Bryant thought that +the boys had mixed their version of the golden rule. Sandy said that +no Cheyenne would be likely to improve upon it. So, with many +misgivings, the little party closed the door of their home behind +them, and took up their line of march to the rendezvous. + +The shortest way to Battles's was by a ford farther down the river, +and not by the way of the Younkins place. So, crossing the creek on a +fallen tree near where Sandy had shot his famous flock of ducks, and +then steering straight across the flat bottom-land on the opposite +side, the party struck into a trail that led through the cottonwoods +skirting the west bank of the stream. The moon was full, and the +darkness of the grove through which they wended their way in single +file was lighted by long shafts of moonbeams that streamed through the +dense growth. The silence, save for the steady tramp of the little +expedition, was absolute. Now and again a night-owl hooted, or a +sleeping hare, scared from its form, scampered away into the +underbrush; but these few sounds made the solitude only more +oppressive. Charlie, bringing up the rear, noted the glint of the +moonlight on the barrels of the firearms carried by the party ahead of +him, and all the romance in his nature was kindled by the thought that +this was frontier life in the Indian country. Not far away, he +thought, as he turned his face to the southward, the cabins of +settlers along the Smoky Hill were burning, and death and desolation +marked the trail of the cruel Cheyennes. + +Now and again Sandy, shivering in the chill and dampness of the wood, +fell back and whispered to Oscar, who followed him in the narrow +trail, that this would be awfully jolly if he were not so sleepy. The +lad was accustomed to go to bed soon after dark; it was now late into +the night. + +All hands were glad when the big double cabin of the Battles family +came in sight about midnight, conspicuous on a rise of the rolling +prairie and black against the sky. Lights were burning brightly in one +end of the cabin; in the other end a part of the company had gone to +sleep, camping on the floor. Hot coffee and corn-bread were ready for +the newcomers, and Younkins, with a tender regard for the lads, who +were unaccustomed to milk when at home, brought out a big pan of +delicious cool milk for their refreshment. Altogether, as Sandy +confessed to himself, an Indian scare was not without its fun. He +listened with great interest to the tales that the settlers had to +tell of the exploits of Gray Wolf, the leader and chief of the +Cheyennes. He was a famous man in his time, and some of the elder +settlers of Kansas will even now remember his name with awe. The boys +were not at all desirous of meeting the Indian foe, but they secretly +hoped that if they met any of the redskins, they would see the +far-famed Gray Wolf. + +While the party, refreshed by their late supper, found a lodging +anywhere on the floor of the cabin, a watch was set outside, for the +Indians might pounce upon them at any hour of the night or day. Those +who had mounted guard during the earlier part of the evening went to +their rest. Charlie, as he dropped off to sleep, heard the footsteps +of the sentry outside and said to himself, half in jest, "The Wolf is +at the door." + +But no wolf came to disturb their slumbers. The bright and cheerful +day, and the song of birds dispelled the gloom of the night, and fear +was lifted from the minds of the anxious settlers, some of whom, +separated from wives and children, were troubled with thoughts of +homes despoiled and crops destroyed. Just as they had finished +breakfast and were preparing for the march to the fort, now only two +or three miles away, a mounted man in the uniform of a United States +dragoon dashed up to the cabin, and, with a flourish of soldierly +manner, informed the company that the commanding officer at the post +had information that the Cheyennes, instead of crossing over to the +Republican as had been expected, or attacking the fort, had turned and +gone back the way they came. All was safe, and the settlers might go +home assured that there was no danger to themselves or their +families. + +Having delivered this welcome message in a grand and semi-official +manner, the corporal dismounted from his steed, in answer to a +pressing invitation from Battles, and unbent himself like an ordinary +mortal to partake of a very hearty breakfast of venison, corn-bread, +and coffee. The company unslung their guns and rifles, sat down again, +and regaled themselves with pipes, occasional cups of strong coffee, +and yet more exhilarating tales of the exploits and adventures of +Indian slayers of the earlier time on the Kansas frontier. The great +Indian scare was over. Before night fell again, every settler had gone +his own way to his claim, glad that things were no worse, but groaning +at Uncle Sam for the niggardliness which had left the region so +defenceless when an emergency had come. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +DISCOURAGEMENT. + + +Right glad were our settlers to see their log-cabin home peacefully +sleeping in the autumnal sunshine, as they returned along the familiar +trail from the river. They had gone back by the way of the Younkins +place and had partaken of the good man's hospitality. Younkins thought +it best to leave his brood with his neighbors on the Big Blue for +another day. "The old woman," he said, "would feel sort of scary-like" +until things had well blown over. She was all right where she was, and +he would try to get on alone for a while. So the boys, under his +guidance, cooked a hearty luncheon which they heartily enjoyed. +Younkins had milk and eggs, both of which articles were luxuries to +the Whittier boys, for on their ranch they had neither cow nor hens. + +"Why can't we have some hens this fall, daddy?" asked Sandy, +luxuriating in a big bowl of custard sweetened with brown sugar, which +the skilful Charlie had compounded. "We can build a hen-house there by +the corral, under the lee of the cabin, and make it nice and warm for +the winter. Battles has got hens to sell, and perhaps Mr. Younkins +would be willing to sell us some of his." + +"If we stay, Sandy, we will have some fowls; but we will talk about +that by and by," said his father. + +"Stay?" echoed Sandy. "Why, is there any notion of going back? Back +from 'bleeding Kansas'? Why, daddy, I'm ashamed of you." + +Mr. Howell smiled and looked at his brother-in-law. "Things do not +look very encouraging for a winter in Kansas, bleeding or not +bleeding; do they, Charlie?" + +"Well, if you appeal to me, father," replied the lad, "I shall be glad +to stay and glad to go home. But, after all, I must say, I don't +exactly see what we can do here this winter. There is no farm work +that can be done. But it would cost an awful lot of money to go back +to Dixon, unless we took back everything with us and went as we came. +Wouldn't it?" + +Younkins did not say anything, but he looked approvingly at Charlie +while the other two men discussed the problem. Mr. Bryant said it was +likely to be a hard winter; they had no corn to sell, none to feed to +their cattle. "But corn is so cheap that the settlers over on +Solomon's Fork say they will use it for fuel this winter. Battles told +me so. I'd like to see a fire of corn on the cob; they say it makes a +hot fire burned that way. Corn-cobs without corn hold the heat a long +time. I've tried it." + +"It is just here, boys," said Uncle Aleck. "The folks at home are +lonesome; they write, you know, that they want to come out before the +winter sets in. But it would be mighty hard for women out here, this +coming winter, with big hulking fellows like us to cook for and with +nothing for us to do. Everything to eat would have to be bought. We +haven't even an ear of corn for ourselves or our cattle. Instead of +selling corn at the post, as we expected, we would have to buy of our +neighbors, Mr. Younkins here, and Mr. Fuller, and we would be obliged +to buy our flour and groceries at the post, or down at Manhattan; and +they charge two prices for things out here; they have to, for it costs +money to haul stuff all the way from the river." + +"That's so," said Younkins, resignedly. He was thinking of making a +trip to "the river," as the settlers around there always called the +Missouri, one hundred and fifty miles distant. But Younkins assured +his friends that they were welcome to live in his cabin where they +still were at home, for another year, if they liked, and he would haul +from the river any purchases that they might make. He was expecting to +be ready to start for Leavenworth in a few days, as they knew, and one +of them could go down with him and lay in a few supplies. His team +could haul enough for all hands. If not, they could double up the two +teams and bring back half of Leavenworth, if they had the money to buy +so much. He "hated dreadfully" to hear them talking about going back +to Illinois. + +But when the settlers reached home and found amusement and some little +excitement in the digging up of their household treasures and putting +things in place once more, the thought of leaving this home in the Far +West obtruded itself rather unpleasantly on the minds of all of them, +although nobody spoke of what each thought. Oscar had hidden his +precious violin high up among the rafters of the cabin, being willing +to lose it only if the cabin were burned. There was absolutely no +other place where it would be safe to leave it. He climbed to the loft +overhead and brought it forth with great glee, laid his cheek lovingly +on its body and played a familiar air. Engrossed in his music, he +played on and on until he ran into the melody of "Home, Sweet Home," +to which he had added many curious and artistic variations. + +"Don't play that, Oscar; you make me homesick!" cried Charlie, with a +suspicious moisture in his eyes. "It was all very well for us to hear +that when this was the only home we had or expected to have; but daddy +and Uncle Charlie have set us to thinking about the home in Illinois, +and that will make us all homesick, I really believe." + +"Here is all my 'funny business' wasted," cried Sandy. "No Indian came +to read my comic letter, after all. I suppose the mice and crickets +must have found some amusement in it; I saw any number of them +scampering away when I opened the door; but I guess they are the only +living things that have been here since we went away." + +"Isn't it queer that we should be gone like this for nearly two days," +said Oscar, "leaving everything behind us, and come back and know that +nobody has been any nearer to the place than we have, all the time? I +can't get used to it." + +"My little philosopher," said his Uncle Charlie, "we are living in the +wilderness; and if you were to live here always, you would feel, by +and by, that every newcomer was an interloper; you would resent the +intrusion of any more settlers here, interfering with our freedom and +turning out their cattle to graze on the ranges that seem to be so +like our own, now. That's what happens to frontier settlers, +everywhere." + +"Why, yes," said Sandy, "I s'pose we should all be like that man over +on the Big Blue that Mr. Fuller tells about, who moved away when a +newcomer took up a claim ten miles and a half from him, because, as he +thought, the people were getting too thick. For my part, I am willing +to have this part of Kansas crowded to within, say, a mile and a half +of us, and no more. Hey, Charlie?" + +[Illustration: "HOME, SWEET HOME."] + +But the prospect of that side of the Republican Fork being over-full +with settlers did not seem very imminent about that time. From parts +of Kansas nearer to the Missouri River than they were, they heard of a +slackening in the stream of migration. The prospect of a cold winter +had cooled the ardor of the politicians who had determined, earlier in +the season, to hold the Territory against all comers. Something like a +truce had been tacitly agreed on, and there was a cessation of +hostilities for the present. The troops had been marched back from +Lawrence to the post, and no more elections were coming on for the +present in any part of the Territory. Mr. Bryant, who was the only +ardent politician of the company, thought that it would be a good plan +to go back to Illinois for the winter. They could come out again in +the spring and bring the rest of the two families with them. The land +would not run away while they were gone. + +It was with much reluctance that the boys accepted this plan of their +elders. They were especially sorry that it was thought best that the +two men should stay behind and wind up affairs, while the three lads +would go down to the river with Younkins, and thence home by steamer +from Leavenworth down the Missouri to St. Louis. But, after a few days +of debate, this was thought to be the best thing that could be done. +It was on a dull, dark November day that the boys, wading for the last +time the cold stream of the Fork, crossed over to Younkins's early in +the morning, while the sky was red with the dawning, carrying their +light baggage with them. They had ferried their trunks across the day +before, using the oxcart for the purpose and loading all into +Younkins's team, ready for the homeward journey. + +Now that the bustle of departure had come, it did not seem so hard to +leave the new home on the Republican as they had expected. It had been +agreed that the two men should follow in a week, in time to take the +last steamboat going down the river in the fall, from Fort Benton, +before the closing of navigation for the season. Mr. Bryant, unknown +to the boys, had written home to Dixon directing that money be sent in +a letter addressed to Charlie, in care of a well-known firm in +Leavenworth. They would find it there on their arrival, and that would +enable them to pay their way down the river to St. Louis and thence +home by the railroad. + +"But suppose the money shouldn't turn up?" asked Charlie, when told of +the money awaiting them. He was accustomed to look on the dark side of +things, sometimes, so the rest of them thought. "What then?" + +"Well, I guess you will have to walk home," said his uncle, with a +smile. "But don't worry about that. At the worst, you can work your +passage to St. Louis, and there you will find your uncle, Oscar G. +Bryant, of the firm of Bryant, Wilder & Co. I'll give you his address, +and he will see you through, in case of accidents. But there will be +no accidents. What is the use of borrowing trouble about that?" + +They did not borrow any trouble, and as they drove away from the +scenes that had grown so familiar to them, they looked forward, as all +boys would, to an adventurous voyage down the Missouri, and a welcome +home to their mothers and their friends in dear old Dixon. + +The nights were now cold and the days chilly. They had cooked a goodly +supply of provisions for their journey, for they had not much ready +money to pay for fare by the way. At noon they stopped by the roadside +and made a pot of hot coffee, opened their stores of provisions and +lunched merrily, gypsy-fashion, caring nothing for the curious looks +and inquisitive questions of other wayfarers who passed them. For the +first few nights they attempted to sleep in the wagon. But it was +fearfully cold, and the wagon-bed, cluttered up with trunks, guns, and +other things, gave them very little room. Miserable and sore, they +resolved to spend their very last dollar, if need be, in paying for +lodging at the wayside inns and hospitable cabins of the settlers +along the road. The journey homeward was not nearly so merry as that +of the outward trip. But new cabins had been built along their route, +and the lads found much amusement in hunting up their former +camping-places as they drove along the military road to Fort +Leavenworth. + +In this way, sleeping at the farm-houses and such casual taverns as +had grown up by the highway, and usually getting their supper and +breakfast where they slept, they crept slowly toward the river. Sandy +was the cashier of the party, although he had preferred that Charlie, +being the eldest, should carry their slender supply of cash. Charlie +would not take that responsibility; but, as the days went by, he +rigorously required an accounting every morning; he was very much +afraid that their money would not hold out until they reached +Leavenworth. + +Twenty miles a day with an ox-team was fairly good travelling; and it +was one hundred and fifty miles from the Republican to the Missouri, +as the young emigrants travelled the road. A whole week had been +consumed by the tedious trip when they drove into the busy and +bustling town of Leavenworth, one bright autumnal morning. All along +the way they had picked up much information about the movement of +steamers, and they were delighted to find that the steamboat "New +Lucy" was lying at the levee, ready to sail on the afternoon of the +very day they would be in Leavenworth. They camped, for the last time, +in the outskirts of the town, a good-natured border-State man +affording them shelter in his hay-barn, where they slept soundly all +through their last night in "bleeding Kansas." + +The "New Lucy," from Fort Benton on the upper Missouri, was blowing +off steam as they drove down to the levee. Younkins helped them +unload their baggage, wrung their hands, one after another, with real +tears in his eyes, for he had learned to love these hearty, happy +lads, and then drove away with his cattle to pen them for the day and +night that he should be there. Charlie and Oscar went to the warehouse +of Osterhaus & Wickham, where they were to find the letter from home, +the precious letter containing forty dollars to pay their expenses +homeward. + +Sandy sat on the pile of trunks watching with great interest the novel +sight of hurrying passengers, different from any people he ever saw +before; black "roustabouts," or deck-hands, tumbling the cargo and the +firewood on board, singing, shouting, and laughing the while, the +white mates overseeing the work with many hard words, and the captain, +tough and swarthy, superintending from the upper deck the mates and +all hands. A party of nice-looking, citified people, as Sandy thought +them, attracted his attention on the upper deck, and he mentally +wondered what they could be doing here, so far in the wilderness. + +"Car' yer baggage aboard, boss?" asked a lively young negro, half-clad +and hungry-looking. + +"No, not yet," answered Sandy, feeling in his trousers pocket the last +two quarters of a dollar that was left them. "Not yet. I am not ready +to go aboard till my mates come." The hungry-looking darky made a rush +for another more promising passenger and left Sandy lounging where the +other lads soon after found him. Charlie's face was a picture of +despair. Oscar looked very grave, for him. + +"What's up?" cried Sandy, starting from his seat. "Have you seen a +ghost?" + +"Worse than that," said Charlie. "Somebody's stolen the money!" + +"Stolen the money?" echoed Sandy, with vague terror, the whole extent +of the catastrophe flitting before his mind. "Why, what on earth do +you mean?" + +Oscar explained that they had found the letter, as they expected, and +he produced it, written by the two loving mothers at home. They said +that they had made up their minds to send fifty dollars, instead of +the forty that Uncle Charlie had said would be enough. It was in +ten-dollar notes, five of them; at least, it had been so when the +letter left Dixon. When it was opened in Leavenworth, it was empty, +save for the love and tenderness that were in it. Sandy groaned. + +The lively young darky came up again with, "Car' yer baggage aboard, +boss?" + +It was sickening. + +"What's to be done now?" said Charlie, in deepest dejection, as he sat +on the pile of baggage that now looked so useless and needless. "I +just believe some of the scamps I saw loafing around there in that +store stole the money out of the letter. See here; it was sealed with +that confounded new-fangled 'mucilage'; gumstickum I call it. Anybody +could feel those five bank-notes inside of the letter, and anybody +could steam it open, take out the money, and seal it up again. We have +been robbed." + +"Let's go and see the heads of the house there at Osterhaus & +Wickham's. They will see us righted," cried Sandy, indignantly. "I +won't stand it, for one." + +"No use," groaned Charlie. "We saw Mr. Osterhaus. He was very +sorry--oh, yes!--awfully sorry; but he didn't know us, and he had no +responsibility for the letters that came to his place. It was only an +accommodation to people that he took them in his care, anyhow. Oh, +it's no use talking! Here we are, stranded in a strange place, knowing +no living soul in the whole town but good old Younkins, and nobody +knows where he is. He couldn't lend us the money, even if we were mean +enough to ask him. Good old Younkins!" + +"Younkins!" cried Sandy, starting to his feet. "He will give us good +advice. He has got a great head, has Younkins. I'll go and ask him +what to do. Bless me! There he is now!" and as he spoke, the familiar +slouching figure of their neighbor came around the corner of a +warehouse on the levee. + +"Why don't yer go aboard, boys? The boat leaves at noon, and it's past +twelve now. I just thought I'd come down and say good-by-like, for +I'm powerful sorry to have ye go." + +The boys explained to the astonished and grieved Younkins how they had +been wrecked, as it were, almost in sight of the home port. The good +man nodded his head gravely, as he listened, softly jingled the few +gold coins in his trousers pocket, and said: "Well, boys, this is the +wust scald I ever did see. If I wasn't so dreadful hard up, I'd give +ye what I've got." + +"That's not to be thought of, Mr. Younkins," said Charlie, with +dignity and gratitude, "for we can't think of borrowing money to get +home with. It would be better to wait until we can write home for +more. We might earn enough to pay our board." And Charlie, with a +sigh, looked around at the unsympathetic and hurrying throng. + +"You've got baggage as security for your passage to St. Louis. Go +aboard and tell the clerk how you are fixed. Your pa said as how you +would be all right when you got to St. Louis. Go and 'brace' the +clerk." + +This was a new idea to the boys. They had never heard of such a thing. +Who would dare to ask such a great favor? The fare from Leavenworth to +St. Louis was twelve dollars each. They had known all about that. And +they knew, too, that the price included their meals on the way down. + +"I'll go brace the clerk," said Sandy, stoutly; and before the others +could put in a word, he was gone. + +The clerk was a handsome, stylish-looking man, with a good-natured +countenance that reassured the timid boy at once. Mustering up his +waning courage, Sandy stated the case to him, telling him that that +pile of trunks and guns on the levee was theirs, and that they would +leave them on board when they got to St. Louis until they had found +their uncle and secured the money for their fares. + +The handsome clerk looked sharply at the lad while he was telling his +story. "You've got an honest face, my little man. I'll trust you. +Bring aboard your baggage. People spar their way on the river every +day in the year; you needn't be ashamed of it. Accidents will happen, +you know." And the busy clerk turned away to another customer. + +With a light heart Sandy ran ashore. His waiting and anxiously +watching comrades saw by his face that he had been successful, before +he spoke. + +"That's all fixed," he cried, blithely. + +"Bully boy!" said Younkins, admiringly. + +"Car' yer baggage aboard, boss?" asked the lively young darky. + +"Take it along," said Sandy, with a lordly air. They shook hands with +Younkins once more, this time with more fervor than ever. Then the +three lads filed on board the steamboat. The gang-plank was hauled in, +put out again for the last tardy passenger, once more taken aboard, +and then the stanch steamer "New Lucy" was on her way down the turbid +Missouri. + +"Oh, Sandy," whispered Charlie, "you gave that darky almost the last +cent we had for bringing our baggage on board. We ought to have lugged +it aboard ourselves." + +"Lugged it aboard ourselves? And all these people that we are going to +be passengers with for the next four or five days watching us while we +did a roustabout's work? Not much. We've a quarter left." + +Charlie was silent. The great stern-wheel of the "New Lucy" revolved +with a dashing and a churning sound. The yellow banks of the Missouri +sped by them. The sacred soil of Kansas slid past as in a swiftly +moving panorama. One home was hourly growing nearer, while another was +fading away there into the golden autumnal distance. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +DOWN THE BIG MUDDY. + + +It is more than six hundred miles from Leavenworth to St. Louis by the +river. And as the river is crooked exceedingly, a steamboat travelling +that route points her bow at every point of the compass, north, south, +east, and west, before the voyage is finished. The boys were impatient +to reach home, to be back in dear old Dixon, to see the mother and the +fireside once more. But they knew that days must pass before they +could reach St. Louis. The three lads settled themselves comfortably +in the narrow limits of their little stateroom; for they found that +their passage included quarters really more luxurious than they had +been accustomed to in their Kansas log-cabin. + +"Not much army blanket and buffalo-robe about this," whispered Oscar, +pressing his toil-stained hand on the nice white spread of his berth. +"Say, wouldn't Younkins allow that this was rather comfortable-like, +if he was to see it and compare it with his deerskin coverlet that he +is so proud of?" + +"Well, Younkins's deerskin coverlet is paid for, and this isn't," said +Charlie, grimly. + +But the light-hearted younger boys borrowed no trouble on that score. +As Sandy said, laughingly, they were all fixed for the trip to St. +Louis, and what was the use of fretting about the passage money until +the time came to pay it? + +When the lads, having exchanged their flannel shirts for white cotton +ones, saved up for this occasion, came out from their room, they saw +two long tables covered with snowy cloths set for the whole length of +the big saloon. They had scanned the list of meal hours hanging in +their stateroom, and were very well satisfied to find that there were +three meals served each day. It was nearly time for the two o'clock +dinner, and the colored servants were making ready the tables. The +boat was crowded with passengers, and it looked as if some of them +would be obliged to wait for the "second table." On board of a +steamboat, especially in those days of long voyages, the matter of +getting early to the table and having a good seat was of great concern +to the passengers. Men stood around, lining the walls of the saloon +and regarding with hungry expectation the movements of the waiters who +were making ready the tables. When the chairs were placed, every man +laid his hand on the top of the seat nearest him, prepared, as one of +the boys privately expressed it, to "make a grab." + +"Well, if we don't make a grab, too, we shall get left," whispered +Sandy, and the boys bashfully filed down the saloon and stood ready +to take their seats when the gong should sound. + +To eyes unused to the profuseness of living that then prevailed on the +best class of Western steamboats, the display on the dining-tables of +the "New Lucy" was very grand indeed. The waiters, all their movements +regulated by something like military discipline, filed in and out +bearing handsome dishes for the decoration of the board. + +"Just look at those gorgeous flowers! Red, white, blue, purple, +yellow! My! aren't they fine?" said Sandy, under his breath. + +Oscar giggled. "They are artificial, Sandy. How awfully green you +are!" + +Sandy stoutly maintained that they were real flowers. He could smell +them. But when one of the waiters, having accidentally overturned one +of the vases and knocked a flaming bouquet on the carpeted floor of +the cabin, snatched it up and dusted it with his big black hand, Sandy +gave in, and murmured, "Tis true; they're false." + +But the boys' eyes fairly stood out with wonder and admiration when a +procession of colored men came out of the pantry, bearing a grand +array of ornamental dishes. Pineapples, bananas, great baskets of +fancy cakes, and other dainties attracted their wonder-stricken gaze. +But most of all, numerous pyramids of macaroons, two or three feet +high, with silky veils of spun sugar falling down from summit to base, +fascinated their attention. They had never seen the like at a public +table; and the generous board of the "New Lucy" fairly groaned with +good things when the gong somewhat superfluously announced to the +waiting throng that dinner was served. + +"No plates, knives, or forks," said Sandy, as, amid a great clatter +and rush, everybody sat down to the table. Just then a long procession +of colored waiters emerged from the pantry, the foremost man carrying +a pile of plates, and after him came another with a basket of knives, +after him another with a basket of forks, then another with spoons, +and so on, each man carrying a supply of some one article for the +table. With the same military precision that had marked all their +movements, six black hands were stretched at the same instant over the +shoulders of the sitting passengers, and six articles were noiselessly +dropped on the table; then, with a similar motion, the six black hands +went back to their respective owners, as the procession moved along +behind the guests, the white-sleeved arms and black hands waving in +the air and keeping exact time as the procession moved around the +table. + +"Looks like a white-legged centipede," muttered Sandy, under his +breath. But more evolutions were coming. These preliminaries having +been finished, the solemn procession went back to the kitchen regions, +and presently came forth again, bearing a glittering array of shining +metal covered dishes. At the tap of the pompous head-waiter's bell, +every man stood at "present arms," as Oscar said. Then, at another +tap, each dish was projected over the white cloth to the spot for +which it was designed, and held an inch or two above the table. +Another tap, and every dish dropped into its place with a sound as of +one soft blow. The pompous head-waiter struck his bell again, and +every dish-cover was touched by a black hand. One more jingle, and, +with magical swiftness and deftness, each dish-cover was lifted, and a +delightful perfume of savory viands gushed forth amidst the +half-suppressed "Ahs" of the assembled and hungry diners. Then the +procession of dark-skinned waiters, bearing the dish-covers, filed +back to the pantry, and the real business of the day began. This was +the way that dinners were served on all the first-rate steamboats on +Western rivers in those days. + +To hungry, hearty boys, used of late to the rough fare of the +frontier, and just from a hard trip in an ox-wagon, with very short +rations indeed, this profusion of good things was a real delight. +Sandy's mouth watered, but he gently sighed to himself, "'Most takes +away my appetite." The polite, even servile, waiters pressed the lads +with the best of everything on the generous board; and Sandy's cup of +happiness was full when a jolly darky, his ebony face shining with +good-nature, brought him some frosted cake, charlotte russe, and spun +sugar and macaroons from one of the shattered pyramids. + +"D'ye s'pose they break those up every day?" whispered Sandy to the +more dignified Charlie. + +"Suttinly, suh," replied the colored man, overhearing the question; +"suttinly, suh. Dis yere boat is de fastest and de finest on de Big +Muddy, young gent; an' dere's nuttin' in dis yere worl' that the 'New +Lucy' doan have on her table; an' doan yer fergit it, young mas'r," he +added, with respectful pride in his voice. + +"My! what a tuck-out! I've ate and ate until I'm fairly fit to bust," +said Sandy, as the three boys, their dinner over, sauntered out into +the open air and beheld the banks of the river swiftly slipping by as +they glided down the stream. + +Just then, glancing around, his eye caught the amused smile of a tall +and lovely lady who was standing near by, chatting with two or three +rather superior-looking young people whom the lad had first noticed +when the question of having the baggage brought on board at +Leavenworth was under discussion. Sandy's brown cheek flushed; but the +pretty lady, extending her hand, said: "Pardon my smiling, my boy; but +I have a dear lad at home in Baltimore who always says just that after +his Christmas dinner, and sometimes on other occasions, perhaps; and +his name is Sandy, too. I think I heard your brother call you Sandy? +This is your brother, is it not?" And the lady turned towards +Charlie. + +The lad explained the relationship of the little party, and the lady +from Baltimore introduced the members of her party. They had been far +up the river to Fort Benton, where they had spent some weeks with +friends who were in the military garrison at that post. The young men, +of whom there were three in the party, had been out hunting for +buffalo, elk, and other big game. Had the boys ever killed any +buffalo? The pleasant-faced young gentleman who asked the question had +noticed that they had a full supply of guns when they came aboard at +Leavenworth. + +Yes, they had killed buffalo; at least, Sandy had; and the youngster's +exploit on the bluff of the Republican Fork was glowingly narrated by +the generous and manly Charlie. This story broke the ice with the +newly met voyagers and, before the gong sounded for supper, the +Whittier boys, as they still called themselves, were quite as well +acquainted with the party from Baltimore, as they thought, as they +would have been if they had been neighbors and friends on the banks of +the Republican. + +The boys looked in at the supper-table. They only looked; for although +the short autumnal afternoon had fled swiftly by while they were +chatting with their new friends or exploring the steamboat, they felt +that they could not possibly take another repast so soon after their +first real "tuck-out" on the "New Lucy." The overloaded table, +shining with handsome glass and china and decked with fancy cakes, +preserves, and sweetmeats, had no present attractions for the boys. +"It's just like after Thanksgiving dinner," said Oscar. "Only we are +far from home," he added, rather soberly. And when the lads crawled +into their bunks, as Sandy insisted upon calling their berths, it +would not surprise one if "thoughts of home and sighs disturbed the +sleeper's long-drawn breath." + +Time and again, in the night-watches, the steamer stopped at some +landing by the river-side. Now it would be a mere wood-pile, and the +boat would be moored to a cottonwood tree that overhung the stream. +Torches of light-wood burning in iron frames at the end of a staff +stuck into the ground or lashed to the steamer rail shed a wild, weird +glare on the hurrying scene as the roustabouts, or deck-hands, nimbly +lugged the wood on board, or carried the cargo ashore, singing +plaintive melodies as they worked. Then again, the steamer would be +made fast to a wharf-boat by some small town, or to the levee of a +larger landing-place, and goods went ashore, passengers flitted on and +off, baggage was transferred, the gang-plank was hauled in with +prodigious clatter, the engineer's bell tinkled, and, with a great +snort from her engines, the "New Lucy" resumed her way down the river. +Few passengers but those who were to go ashore could be seen on the +upper deck viewing the strange sights of making a night-landing. And +through the whole racket and din, three lads slept the sleep of the +young and the innocent in room Number 56. "Just the number of the year +with the eighteen knocked off," Sandy had said when they were assigned +to it. + +When the boys had asked in Leavenworth how long the trip to St. Louis +would be, they were told, "Three or four days, if the water holds." +This they thought rather vague information, and they had only a dim +idea of what the man meant by the water holding. They soon learned. +The season had been dry for the time of year. Although it was now +November, little or no autumnal rains had fallen. Passengers from Fort +Benton said that the lands on the Upper Missouri were parched for want +of water, and the sluggish currents of the Big Muddy were "as slow as +cold molasses," as one of the deck-hands said to Sandy, when he was +peering about the lower deck of the steamboat. It began to look as if +the water would not hold. + +On the second afternoon out of Leavenworth, as the "New Lucy" was +gallantly sweeping around Prairie Bend, where any boat going down +stream is headed almost due north, the turn in the river revealed no +less than four other steamers hard and fast on the shoals that now +plentifully appeared above the surface of the yellow water. Cautiously +feeling her way along through these treacherous bars and sands, the +"New Lucy," with slackened speed, moved bravely down upon the stranded +fleet. Anxious passengers clustered on the forward part of the +steamer, watching the course of events. With many a cough and many a +sigh, the boat swung to the right or left, obedient to her helm, the +cry of the man heaving the lead for soundings telling them how fast +the water shoaled or deepened as they moved down stream. + +"We are bound to get aground," said Oscar, as he scanned the wide +river, apparently almost bare to its bed. "I suppose there is a +channel, and I suppose that pilot up there in the pilot-house knows +where it is, but I don't see any." Just then the water before them +suddenly shoaled, there was a soft, grating sound, a thud, and the +boat stopped, hard and fast aground. The "New Lucy" had joined the +fleet of belated steamers on the shoals of Prairie Bend. + +The order was given for all passengers to go aft; and while the lads +were wondering what they were so peremptorily sent astern for, they +saw two tall spars that had been carried upright at the bow of the +boat rigged into the shape of a V upside down, and set on either side +of the craft, the lower ends resting on the sand-bar each side of her. +A big block and tackle were rigged at the point where the spars +crossed each other over the bow of the boat, and from these a stout +cable was made fast to the steamer's "nose," as the boys heard +somebody call the extreme point of the bow. + +"They are actually going to hoist this boat over the sand-bar," said +Sandy, excitedly, as they viewed these preparations from the rear of +the boat. + +"That is exactly what they are going to do," said the pleasant-faced +young man from Baltimore. "Now, then!" he added, with the air of +one encouraging another, as the crew, laying hold of the tackle, and +singing with a queer, jerky way, began to hoist. This would not +avail. The nose of the boat was jammed deep into the sand, and so the +cable was led back to a windlass, around which it was carried. +Then, the windlass being worked by steam, the hull of the steamer +rose very slightly, and the bottom of the bow was released from the +river-bottom. The pilot rang his bell, the engine puffed and +clattered, and the boat crept ahead for a few feet, and then came to +rest again. That was all that could be done until the spars were +reset further forward or deep water was reached. It was discouraging, +for with all their pulling and hauling, that had lasted for more than +an hour, they had made only four or five feet of headway. + +"At the rate of five feet an hour, how long will it take us to spar +our way down to St. Louis?" asked Charlie, quizzically. + +"Oh, Charlie," cried Sandy, "I know now why the clerk said that there +were plenty of fellows who had to spar their way on the river. It is +hard work to pull this steamer over the sand-bars and shoals, and when +a man is busted and has to work his way along, he's like a steamboat +in a fix, like this one is. See? That's the reason why they say he is +sparring his way, isn't it?" + +"You are quite correct, youngster," said the young man from Baltimore, +regarding Sandy's bright face with pleasure. "Correct you are. But I +never knew what the slang meant until I came out here. And, for that +matter, I don't know that I ever heard the slang before. But it is the +jargon of the river men." + +By this time, even sparring was of very little use, for the spars only +sank deep and deeper into the soft river-bottom, and there was no +chance to raise the bow of the boat from its oozy bed. The case for +the present was hopeless; but the crew were kept constantly busy until +nightfall, pulling and hauling. Some were sent ashore in a skiff, with +a big hawser, which was made fast to a tree, and then all the power of +the boat, men and steam, was put upon it to twist her nose off from +the shoal into which it was stuck. All sorts of devices were resorted +to, and a small gain was made once in a while; but it looked very much +as if the calculation of Charlie, five feet in an hour, was too +liberal an allowance for the progress towards St. Louis. + +Just then, from the boat furthest down the river rose a cloud of +steam, and the astonished lads heard a most extraordinary sound like +that of a gigantic organ. More or less wheezy, but still easily to be +understood, the well-known notes of "Oh, Susannah!" came floating up +the river to them. Everybody paused to listen, even the tired and +tugging roustabouts smiling at the unwonted music. + +"Is it really music?" asked Oscar, whose artistic ear was somewhat +offended by this strange roar of sounds. The young man from Baltimore +assured him that this was called music; the music of a steam-organ or +calliope, then a new invention on the Western rivers. He explained +that it was an instrument made of a series of steam-whistles so +arranged that a man, sitting where he could handle them all very +rapidly, could play a tune on them. The player had only to know the +key to which each whistle was pitched, and, with a simple arrangement +of notes before him, he could make a gigantic melody that could be +heard for many miles away. + +"You are a musician, are you not?" asked the young man from Baltimore. +"Didn't I hear you playing a violin in your room last night? Or was it +one of your brothers?" + +Oscar, having blushingly acknowledged that he was playing his violin +for the benefit of his cousins, as he explained, his new-found +acquaintance said, "I play the flute a little, and we might try some +pieces together some time, if you are willing." + +As they were making ready for bed that night, the pleasant-faced young +man from Baltimore, who had been playing whist with his mother and +sister, and the "military man," as the boys had privately named one +of the party, came to their door with his flute. The two musicians +were fast friends at once. Flute and violin made delicious harmony, in +the midst of which Sandy, who had slipped into his bunk, drifted off +into the land of dreams with confused notions of a giant band +somewhere up in the sky playing "Oh, Susannah!" "Love's Last +Greeting," and "How Can I Leave Thee?" with occasional suggestions of +the "Song of the Kansas Emigrants." + +Another morning came on, cold, damp, and raw. The sky was overcast and +there were signs of rain. "There's been rain to the nor'rard," said +Captain Bulger, meditatively. Now Captain Bulger was the skipper of +the "New Lucy," and when he said those oracular words, they were +reported about the steamboat, to the great comfort of all on board. +Still the five boats stuck on the shoals; their crews were still hard +at work at all the devices that could be thought of for their +liberation. The "War Eagle"--for they had found out the name of the +musical steamer far down stream--enlivened the tedious day with her +occasional strains of martial and popular music, if the steam-organ +could be called musical. + +In the afternoon, Oscar and the amiable young man from Baltimore shut +themselves in their stateroom and played the flute and violin. The +lovely lady who had made Sandy's acquaintance early in the voyage +asked him if he could make one at a game of whist. Sandy replied that +he could play "a very little." The thought of playing cards here on a +steamboat, in public, as he said to himself, was rather frightful. He +was not sure if his mother would like to have him do that. He looked +uneasily around to see what Charlie would say about it. But Charlie +was nowhere in sight. He was wandering around, like an uneasy ghost, +watching for signs of the rising of the river, now confidently +predicted by the knowing ones among the passengers. + +"My boys all play whist," said the lady, kindly; "but if you do not +like to play, I will not urge you. We lack one of making up a party." + +Sandy had been told that he was an uncommonly good player for one so +young. He liked the game; there would be no stakes, of course. With +his ready habit of making up his mind, he brightly said, "I'll play if +you like, but you must know that I am only a youngster and not a +first-rate player." So they sat down, the lovely lady from Baltimore +being Sandy's partner, and the military gentleman and the young +daughter of the lady from Baltimore being their opponents. Sandy had +great good luck. The very best cards fell to him continually, and he +thought he had never played so well. He caught occasional strains of +music from room Number 56, and he was glad that Oscar was enjoying +himself. From time to time the lovely lady who was his partner smiled +approvingly at him, and once in a while, while the cards were being +dealt, she said, "How divinely those dear boys are playing!" + +The afternoon sped on delightfully, and Sandy's spirits rose. He +thought it would be fine if the "New Lucy" should stay stuck on a +sand-bar for days and days, and he should have such a good game of +whist, with the lovely lady from Baltimore for a partner. But the +military gentleman grew tired. His luck was very poor, and when the +servants began to rattle dishes on the supper-table, he suggested that +it would be just as well perhaps if they did not play too much now; +they would enjoy the game better later on. They agreed to stop with +the next game. + +When they had first taken their places at the card-table, the military +gentleman had asked Sandy if he had any cards, and when he replied +that he had none, the military gentleman, with a very lordly air, sent +one of the cabin waiters to the bar for a pack of cards. Now that they +were through with the game, Sandy supposed that the military gentleman +would put the cards into his pocket and pay for them. Instead of that +he said, "Now, my little man, we will saw off to see who shall pay for +the cards." + +"Saw off?" asked Sandy, faintly, with a dim notion of what was meant. + +"Yes, my lad," said the military gentleman. "We will play one hand of +Old Sledge to see who shall pay for the cards and keep them." + +With a sinking heart, but with a brave face, Sandy took up the cards +dealt to him and began to play. It was soon over. Sandy won one point +in the hand; the military gentleman had the other three. + +"Take care of your cards, my son," said the military gentleman; "we +may want them again. They charge the extravagant price of six bits for +them on this boat, and these will last us to St. Louis." + +Six bits! Seventy-five cents! And poor Sandy had only twenty-five +cents in his pocket. That silver quarter represented the entire +capital of the Boy Settlers from Kansas. Looking up, he saw Charlie +regarding him with reproachful eyes from a corner of the saloon. With +great carefulness, he gathered up his cards and rose, revolving in his +mind the awful problem of paying for seventy-five cents' worth of +cards with twenty-five cents. + +"Well, you've got yourself into a nice scrape," tragically whispered +Charlie, in his ear, as soon as the two boys were out of earshot of +the others. "What are you going to do now? You can spar your way down +to St. Louis, but you can't spar your way with that barkeeper for a +pack of cards." + +"Let me alone, Charlie," said Sandy, testily. "You haven't got to pay +for these cards. I'll manage it somehow. Don't you worry yourself the +least bit." + +"Serves you right for gambling. What would mother say if she knew it? +If you hadn't been so ready to show off your whist-playing before +these strangers, you wouldn't have got into such a box." + +"I didn't gamble," replied Sandy, hotly. "It isn't gambling to play a +hand to see who shall pay for the cards. All men do that. I have seen +daddy roll a game of tenpins to see who should pay for the alley." + +"I don't care for that. It is gambling to play for the leastest thing +as a stake. Nice fellow you are, sitting down to play a hand of +seven-up for the price of a pack of cards! Six bits at that!" + +"A nice brotherly brother you are to nag me about those confounded +cards, instead of helping a fellow out when he is down on his luck." + +Charlie, a little conscience-stricken, held his peace, while Sandy +broke away from him, and rushed out into the chilly air of the +after-deck. There was no sympathy in the dark and murky river, none in +the forlorn shore, where rows of straggling cottonwoods leaned over +and swept their muddy arms in the muddy water. Looking around for a +ray of hope, a bright idea struck him. He could but try one chance. +The bar of the "New Lucy" was a very respectable-looking affair, as +bars go. It opened into the saloon cabin of the steamer on its inner +side, but in the rear was a small window where the deck passengers +sneaked up, from time to time, and bought whatever they wanted, and +then quietly slipped away again, unseen by the more "high-toned" +passengers in the cabin. Summoning all his courage and assurance, the +boy stepped briskly to this outside opening, and, leaning his arms +jauntily on the window-ledge, said, "See here, cap, I owe you for a +pack of cards." + +"Yep," replied the barkeeper, holding a bottle between his eye and the +light, and measuring its contents. + +This was not encouraging. Sandy, with a little effort, went on: "You +see we fellows, three of us, are sparring our way down to St. Louis. +We have got trusted for our passage. We've friends in St. Louis, and +when we get there we shall be in funds. Our luggage is in pawn for our +passage money. When we come down to get our luggage, I will pay you +the six bits I owe you for the cards. Is that all right?" + +"Yep," said the barkeeper, and he set the bottle down. As the lad went +away from the window, with a great load lifted from his heart, the +barkeeper put his head out of the opening, looked after him, smiled, +and said, "That boy'll do." + +When Sandy joined his brother, who was wistfully watching for him, he +said, a little less boastfully than might have been expected of him, +"That's all right, Charlie. The barkeeper says he will trust me until +we get to St. Louis and come aboard to get the luggage. He's a good +fellow, even if he did say 'yep' instead of 'yes' when I asked him." + +In reply to Charlie's eager questions, Sandy related all that had +happened, and Charlie, with secret admiration for his small brother's +knack of "cheeking it through," as he expressed it, forbore any +further remarks. + +"I do believe the water is really rising!" exclaimed the irrepressible +youngster, who, now that his latest trouble was fairly over, was +already thinking of something else. "Look at that log. When I came out +here just after breakfast, this morning, it was high and dry on that +shoal. Now one end of it is afloat. See it bob up and down?" + +Full of the good news, the lads went hurriedly forward to find Oscar, +who, with his friend from Baltimore, was regarding the darkening scene +from the other part of the boat. + +"She's moving!" excitedly cried Oscar, pointing his finger at the "War +Eagle"; and, as he spoke, that steamer slid slowly off the sand-bar, +and with her steam-organ playing triumphantly "Oh, aren't you glad +you're out of the Wilderness!" a well-known air in those days, she +steamed steadily down stream. From all the other boats, still stranded +though they were, loud cheers greeted the first to be released from +the long embargo. Presently another, the "Thomas H. Benton," slid off, +and churning the water with her wheels like a mad thing, took her way +down the river. All these boats were flat-bottomed and, as the saying +was, "could go anywhere if the ground was a little damp." A rise of a +very few inches of water was sufficient to float any one of them. And, +in the course of a half-hour, the "New Lucy," to the great joy of her +passengers, with one more hoist on her forward spars, was once more in +motion, and she too went gayly steaming down the river, her less +fortunate companions who were still aground cheering her as she glided +along the tortuous channel. + +"Well, that was worth waiting some day or two to see," said Oscar, +drawing a long breath. "Just listen to that snorting calliope, playing +'Home, Sweet Home' as they go prancing down the Big Muddy. I shall +never forget her playing that 'Out of the Wilderness' as she tore out +of those shoals. It's a pretty good tune, after all, and the +steam-organ is not so bad now that you hear it at a distance." + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +STRANDED NEAR HOME. + + +It was after dark, on a Saturday evening, when the "New Lucy" landed +her passengers at the levee, St. Louis. They should have been in the +city several hours earlier, and they had expected to arrive by +daylight. The lads marvelled much at the sight of the muddy waters of +the Missouri running into the pure currents of the Mississippi, twenty +miles above St. Louis, the two streams joining but not mingling, the +yellow streak of the Big Muddy remaining separate and distinct from +the flow of the Mississippi for a long distance below the joining of +the two. They had also found new enjoyment in the sight of the great, +many-storied steamboats with which the view was now diversified as +they drew nearer the beautiful city which had so long been the object +of their hopes and longings. They could not help thinking, as they +looked at the crowded levee, solid buildings, and slender church +spires, that all this was a strange contrast to the lonely prairie and +wide, trackless spaces of their old home on the banks of the distant +Kansas stream. The Republican Fork seemed to them like a far-off +dream, it was so very distant to them now. + +"Where are you young fellows going to stop in St. Louis?" asked the +pleasant-faced young man from Baltimore. + +The lads had scarcely thought of that, and here was the city, the +strange city in which they knew nobody, in full sight. They exchanged +looks of dismay, Sandy's face wearing an odd look of amusement and +apprehension mixed. Charlie timidly asked what hotels were the best. +The young man from Baltimore named two or three which he said were +"first-class," and Charlie thought to himself that they must avoid +those. They had no money to pay for their lodging, no baggage as +security for their payment. + +As soon as they could get away by themselves, they held a council to +determine what was to be done. They had the business address of their +uncle, Oscar Bryant, of the firm of Bryant, Wilder & Co., wholesale +dealers in agricultural implements, Front Street. But they knew enough +about city life to know that it would be hopeless to look for him in +his store at night. It would be nearly nine o'clock before they could +reach any hotel. What was to be done? Charlie was certain that no +hotel clerk would be willing to give them board and lodging, penniless +wanderers as they were, with nothing but one small valise to answer as +luggage for the party. They could have no money until they found their +uncle. + +Before they could make up their minds what to do, or which way to +turn, the boat had made her landing and was blowing off steam at the +levee. The crowds of passengers, glad to escape from the narrow limits +of the steamer, were hurrying ashore. The three homeless and houseless +lads were carried resistlessly along with the crowd. Charlie regretted +that they had not asked if they could stay on the boat until Sunday +morning. But Sandy and Oscar both scouted such a confession of their +poverty. "Besides," said Sandy, "it is not likely that they would keep +any passengers on board here at the levee." + +"Ride up? Free 'bus to the Planters'!" cried one of the runners on the +levee, and before the other two lads could collect their thoughts, the +energetic Sandy had drawn them into the omnibus, and they were on +their way to an uptown hotel. When the driver had asked where their +baggage was, Sandy, who was ready to take command of things, had +airily answered that they would have it sent up from the steamer. +There were other passengers in the 'bus, and Charlie, anxious and +distressed, had no chance to remonstrate; they were soon rattling and +grinding over the pavements of St. Louis. The novelty of the ride and +the glitter of the brightly lighted shops in which crowds of people +were doing their Saturday-night buying, diverted their attention for a +time. Then the omnibus backed up before a handsome hotel, and +numerous colored men came hurrying down the steps of the grand +entrance to wait upon the new arrivals. With much ceremony and +obsequiousness, the three young travellers were ushered into the +office, where they wrote their names in a big book, and were escorted +to a large and elegant room, in which were ample, even luxurious, +sleeping accommodations for the trio. + +The colored porter assiduously brushed off the clothing of the lads. +"Baggage?" the clerk at the desk had asked when they registered. +"Baggage, sah?" the waiter asked again, as he dusted briskly the +jackets of the three guests. Neither Charlie nor Oscar had the heart +to make reply to this very natural question. It was Sandy who said: +"We will not have our baggage up from the steamer to-night. We are +going right on up north." + +But when Sandy tipped the expectant waiter with the long-treasured +silver quarter of a dollar, Charlie fairly groaned, and sinking into a +chair as the door closed, said, "Our last quarter! Great Scott, Sandy! +are you crazy?" + +Sandy, seeing that there was no help for it, put on a bold front, and +insisted that they must keep up appearances to the last. He would hunt +up Uncle Oscar's place of abode in the city directory after supper, +and bright and early Sunday morning he would go and see him. They +would be all right then. What use was that confounded old quarter, +anyhow? They might as well stand well with the waiter. He might be +useful to them. Twenty-five cents would not pay their hotel bill; it +would not buy anything they needed in St. Louis. The darky might as +well have it. + +"And this is one of the swellest and most expensive hotels in the +city," cried Charlie, eyeing the costly furniture and fittings of the +room in which they were lodged. "I just think that we are travelling +under false pretences, putting up at an expensive house like this +without a cent in our pockets. Not one cent! What will you do, you +cheeky boy, if they ask us for our board in advance? I have heard that +they always do that with travellers who have no baggage." + +"Well, I don't know what we will do," said Sandy, doggedly. "Suppose +we wait until they ask us. There'll be time enough to decide when we +are dunned for our bill. I suppose the honestest thing would be to own +right up and tell the whole truth. It's nothing to be ashamed of. Lots +of people have to do that sort of thing when they get into a tight +place." + +"But I'm really afraid, Sandy, that they won't believe us," said the +practical Oscar. "The world is full of swindlers as well as of honest +fellows. They might put us out as adventurers." + +"We are not adventurers!" cried Sandy, indignantly. "We are gentlemen +when we are at home, able to pay our debts. We are overtaken by an +accident," he added, chuckling to himself. "Distressed gentlemen, +don't you see?" + +"But we might have gone to a cheaper place," moaned Charlie. "Here we +are in the highest-priced hotel in St. Louis. I know it, for I heard +that Baltimore chap say so. We might have put up at some third-rate +house, anyhow." + +"But it is the third-rate house that asks you for your baggage, and +makes you pay in advance if you don't have any," cried Sandy, +triumphantly. "I don't believe that a high-toned hotel like this duns +people in advance for their board, especially if it is a casual +traveller, such as we are. Anyhow, they haven't dunned us yet, and +when they do, I'll engage to see the party through, Master Charlie; so +you set your mind at rest." As for Charlie, he insisted that he would +keep out of the sight of the hotel clerk, until relief came in the +shape of money to pay their bill. + +Oscar, who had been reading attentively a printed card tacked to the +door of the room, broke in with the declaration that he was hungry, +and that supper was served until ten o'clock at night. The others +might talk all night, for all he cared; he intended to have some +supper. There was no use arguing about the chances of being dunned for +their board; the best thing he could think of was to have some board +before he was asked to pay for it. And he read out the list of hours +for dinner, breakfast, and supper from the card. + +"There is merit in your suggestion," said Charlie, with a grim smile. +"The dead-broke Boy Settlers from the roaring Republican Fork will +descend to the banquet-hall." Charlie was recovering his spirits under +Oscar's cool and unconcerned advice to have board before being in the +way of paying for it. + +After supper, the lads, feeling more cheerful than before, sauntered +up to the clerk's desk, and inspected the directory of the city. They +found their uncle's name and address, and it gave them a gleam of +pleasure to see his well-remembered business card printed on the page +opposite. Under the street address was printed Mr. Bryant's place of +residence, thus: "h. at Hyde Park." + +"Where's that?" asked Sandy, confidently, of the clerk. + +"Oh! that's out of the city a few miles. You can ride out there in the +stage. Only costs you a quarter." + +Only a quarter! And the last quarter had gone to the colored boy with +the whisk-broom. + +"Here's a go!" said Sandy, for once a little cast down. "We might walk +it," Oscar whispered, as they moved away from the desk. But to this +Charlie, asserting the authority of an elder brother, steadfastly +objected. He knew his Uncle Oscar better than the younger boys did. He +remembered that he was a very precise and dignified elderly gentleman. +He would be scandalized greatly if his three wandering nephews should +come tramping out to his handsome villa on a Sunday, like three +vagabonds, to borrow money enough to get home to Dixon with. No; that +was not to be thought of. Charlie said he would pawn his watch on +Monday morning; he would walk the streets to keep out of the way of +the much-dreaded hotel clerk; but, as for trudging out to his Uncle +Oscar's on Sunday, he would not do it, nor should either of the others +stir a step. So they went to bed, and slept as comfortably in their +luxurious apartment as if they had never known anything less handsome, +and had money in plenty to pay all demands at sight. + +It was a cloudy and chilly November Sunday to which the boys awoke +next day. The air was piercingly raw, and the city looked dust-colored +and cheerless under the cold, gray sky. Breaking their fast (Charlie +keeping one eye on the hotel office), they sallied forth to see the +city. They saw it all over, from one end to the other. They walked and +walked, and then went back to the hotel; and after dinner, walked and +walked again. They hunted up their uncle's store in one of the +deserted business streets of the city; and they gazed at its exterior +with a curious feeling of relief. There was the sign on the +prosperous-looking outside of the building,--"Oscar G. Bryant & Co., +Agricultural Implements." There, at least, was a gleam of comfort. The +store was a real thing. Their uncle, little though they knew about +him, was a real man. + +Then, as the evening twilight gathered, they walked out to the borders +of the suburb where he lived. They did not venture into the avenue +where they had been told his house was, vaguely fearing that he might +meet and recognize them. As they turned their steps towards the hotel, +Oscar said: "It's lucky there are three of us to keep ourselves in +countenance. If that wasn't the case, it would be awfully lonely to +think we were so near home, and yet have gone ashore, hard and fast +aground; right in sight of port, as it were." + +The parents of these boys had been born and brought up near the +seacoast of New England, and not a few marine figures of speech were +mingled in the family talk. So Charlie took up the parable and +gloomily said: "We are as good as castaways in this big ocean of a +city, with never a soul to throw us a spar or give us a hand. I never +felt so blue in all my life. Look at those children playing in that +dooryard. Pretty poor-looking children they are; but they've got a +home over their heads to-night. We haven't." + +"Oh, pshaw, Charlie!" broke in Sandy; "why will you always look on the +dark side of things? I know it's real lonesome here in a strange city, +and away from our own folks. But they are not so far away but what we +can get to them after a while. And we have got a roof over our heads +for to-night, anyway; the Planters' is good enough for me; if you +want anything better, you will have to get outside of St. Louis for +it; and, what is more, they are not going to dun us for our board bill +until after to-day. I'm clean beat out traipsing around this town, and +I give you two fellows notice that I am not going to stir a step out +of the hotel to-night. Unless it is to go to church," he added by way +of postscript. + +They did go to church that night, after they had had their supper. It +was a big, comfortable, and roomy church, and the lads were shown into +a corner pew under the gallery, where they were not conspicuous. The +music of choir and organ was soothing and comforting. One of the tunes +sung was "Dundee," and each boy thought of their singing the song of +"The Kansas Emigrants," as the warbling measures drifted down to them +from the organ-loft, lifting their hearts with thoughts that the +strangers about them knew nothing of. The preacher's text was "In my +father's house are many mansions." Then they looked at each other +again, as if to say, "That's a nice text for three homeless boys in a +strange city." But nobody even so much as whispered. + +Later on in the sermon, when the preacher touched a tender chord in +Oscar's heart, alluding to home and friends, and to those who wander +far from both, the lad, with a little moisture in his eyes, turned to +look at Sandy. He was fast asleep in his snug corner. Oscar made a +motion to wake him, but Charlie leaned over and said, "Leave the poor +boy alone. He's tired with his long tramp to-day." When they went out +after the service was over, Oscar rallied Sandy on his sleeping in +church, and the lad replied: "I know it was bad manners, but the last +thing I heard the minister say, was 'Rest for the weary.' I thought +that was meant for me. Leastways, I found rest for the weary right +off, and I guess there was no harm done." + +With Monday morning came sunshine and a clear and bracing air. Even +Charlie's face wore a cheerful look, the first that he had put on +since arriving in St. Louis, although now and again his heart quaked +as he heard the hotel porter's voice in the hall roaring out the time +of departure for the trains that now began to move from the city in +all directions. They had studied the railroad advertisements and +time-tables to some purpose, and had discovered that they must cross +to East St. Louis, on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River, and +there take a train for the northern part of the State, where Dixon is +situated. But they must first see their Uncle Oscar, borrow the needed +money from him, settle with the steamboat people and the hotel, and +then get to the railroad station by eleven o'clock in the forenoon. It +was a big morning's work. + +They were at their uncle's store before he arrived from his suburban +home; and, while they waited, they whisperingly discussed the +question, Who should ask for the money? Charlie was at first disposed +to put this duty on Sandy; but the other two boys were very sure that +it would not look well for the youngest of the party to be the leader +on an occasion so important; and Charlie was appointed spokesman. + +Mr. Oscar Bryant came in. He was very much surprised to see three +strange lads drawn up in a row to receive him. And he was still more +taken aback when he learned that they were his nephews, on their way +home from Kansas. He had heard of his brother's going out to Kansas, +and he had not approved of it at all. He was inclined to think that, +on the whole, it would be better for Kansas to have slavery than to do +without it. A great many other people in St. Louis thought the same +way, at that time, although some of them changed their minds later +on. + +Mr. Oscar Bryant was a tall, spruce-looking, and severe man in +appearance. His hair was gray and brushed stiffly back from his +forehead; and his precise, thin, white whiskers were cut "just like a +minister's," as Sandy afterwards declared; and when he said that going +to Kansas to make it a free State was simply the rankest kind of +folly, Charlie's heart sunk, and he thought to himself that the chance +of borrowing money from their stern-looking uncle was rather slim. + +"But it doesn't make any difference to you boys whether slavery is +voted up or down in Kansas, I suppose," he continued, less sternly. +"You will live to see the day when, if you live in Kansas, you will +own slaves and work them. You can never clear up a wild country like +that without slave-labor, depend upon it. I know what I am talking +about." And Uncle Oscar stroked his chin in a self-satisfied way, as +if he had settled the whole Kansas-Nebraska question in his own manner +of thinking. Sandy's brown cheeks flushed and his eyes sparkled. He +was about to burst out with an indignant word, when Charlie, alarmed +by his small brother's excited looks, blurted out their troubles at +once, in order to head off the protest that he expected from Sandy. +The lad was silent. + +"Eh? what's that?" asked the formal-looking merchant. "Busted? And +away from home? Why, certainly, my lads. How much do you need?" And he +opened his pocket-book at once. Greatly relieved, perhaps surprised, +Charlie told him that they thought that fifty dollars would pay all +their bills and get them back to Dixon. The money was promptly handed +over, and Charlie, emboldened by this good nature, told his uncle that +they still owed for their passage down the river from Leavenworth. + +"And did they really trust you three boys for your passage-money? How +did that happen?" asked the merchant, with admiration. + +Charlie, as spokesman, explained that Sandy had "sparred" their way +for them; and when he had told how Sandy still owed for a pack of +cards, and how it was his honest face and candid way of doing things +that had brought them thus far on their homeward journey, Uncle Oscar, +laughing heartily and quite unbending from his formal and dry way of +talking, said, "Well done, my little red-hot Abolitionist; you'll get +through this world, I'll be bound." He bade the wanderers farewell and +goodspeed with much impressiveness and sent messages of good-will to +their parents. + +"How do you suppose Uncle Oscar knew I was an Abolitionist?" demanded +Sandy, as soon as they were out of earshot. "I'm not an Abolitionist, +anyhow." + +"Well, you're a free-State man; and that's the same thing," said +Charlie. "A free-State boy," added Oscar. + +With a proud heart the cashier of the Boy Settlers paid their bill at +the hotel, and reclaimed their valise from the porter, with whom they +had lodged it in the morning before going out. Then they hurried to +the levee, and, to their surprise, found that the little steamer that +conveyed passengers across the river to the East St. Louis railway +station lay close alongside the "New Lucy." Their task of transferring +the baggage was easy. + +"Say, Sandy, you made the bargain with the clerk to bring us down here +on the security of our luggage; it's nothing more than business-like +that you should pay him what we owe," said Charlie. + +"Right you are, Charlie," added Oscar, "and it's fair that Sandy, who +has had the bother of sparring our way for us, should have the proud +satisfaction of paying up all old scores." So Sandy, nothing loth, +took the roll of bills and marched bravely up to the clerk's office +and paid the money due. The handsome clerk looked approvingly at the +boy, and said: "Found your friends? Good boy! Well, I wish you good +luck." + +The barkeeper said he had forgotten all about the pack of cards that +he had trusted Sandy with, when the lad gave him the seventy-five +cents due him. "I can't always keep account of these little things," +he explained. + +"But you don't often trust anybody with cards coming down the river, +do you?" asked Sandy, surprised. + +"Heaps," said the barkeeper. + +"And do they always pay?" + +"Some of 'em does, and then ag'in, some of 'em doesn't," replied the +man, as with a yawn he turned away to rearrange his bottles and +glasses. + +With the aid of a lounger on the landing, whom they thought they could +now afford to fee for a quarter, the youngsters soon transferred their +luggage from the "New Lucy" to the little ferry-boat near at hand. To +their great pleasure, they found on board the pleasant-faced lady +from Baltimore and her party. She was apparently quite as pleased to +meet them, and she expressed her regret that they were not going +eastward on the train with herself and sons. "We have had such a +pleasant trip down the river together," she said. "And you are going +back to Illinois? Will you return to Kansas in the spring?" + +"We cannot tell yet," replied Charlie, modestly. "That all depends +upon how things look in the spring, and what father and Uncle Aleck +think about it. We are free-State people, and we want to see the +Territory free, you see." + +The pleasant-faced lady's forehead was just a little clouded when she +said, "You will have your labor lost, if you go to Kansas, then; for +it will certainly be a slave State." + +They soon were in the cars with their tickets for Dixon bought, and, +as Sandy exultingly declared, paid for, and their baggage checked all +the way through. Then Sandy said, "I'm sorry that pretty lady from +Baltimore is a Border Ruffian." + +The other two boys shouted with laughter, and Oscar cried: "She's no +Border Ruffian. She's only pro-slavery; and so is Uncle Oscar and lots +of others. You ought to be ashamed of yourself to be so--what is it, +Charlie? Intolerant, that's what it is." + +The train was slowly moving from the rude shed that was dignified by +the name of railroad depot. Looking back at the river with their heads +out of the windows, for the track lay at right angles with the river +bank, they could now see the last of the noble stream on which they +had taken their journey downwards from "bleeding Kansas" by the Big +Muddy. They were nearing home, and their hearts were all the lighter +for the trials and troubles through which they had so lately passed. + +"We don't cross the prairies as of old our fathers crossed the sea, +any more, do we, Charlie?" said Oscar, as they caught their last +glimpse of the mighty Mississippi. + +"No," said the elder lad. "We may not be there to see it; but Kansas +will be the homestead of the free, for all that. Mind what I say." + + + + +Typography by J. S. Cushing & Co., Boston. + +Presswork by Berwick & Smith, Boston. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOY SETTLERS*** + + +******* This file should be named 29129.txt or 29129.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/9/1/2/29129 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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