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The cabin on the prairie

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Title: The cabin on the prairie

Author: C. H. Pearson


        
Release date: May 18, 2009 [eBook #28870]

Language: English

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THE CABIN ON THE PRAIRIE

by

DR. C. H. PEARSON

Author of "Scenes in the West," Etc.

ILLUSTRATED







[Illustration: CAPTURE OF THE FAWN. Page 20]



Boston:
Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by
Lee And Shepard,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court
of the District of Massachusetts.




TO

MY SISTER,

WHOSE SPIRIT HAS JUST GONE FROM PRAIRIE-LIFE

TO THE HILLS OF PARADISE,

I INSCRIBE THIS BOOK.

C. H. PEARSON.




A FRONTIER PROPHET.

INTRODUCTORY.


"If you stay here long, you will become so Westernized that you will
lose all love for New England. That's my experience." So said a brawny
pioneer, a man of large mind, and generous heart, and a sledge-hammer
fist that never struck a coward's blow; but when swung in defence of
the right was like "the jaw-bone" of Samson to the Philistines. He had
emigrated from Maine twenty years before, and was one of the first
settlers I met on the prairie near the scene of my story. Was his
prediction fulfilled? Ah, how like sweetest music sounded the bells of
Salem (city of peace) the first Sunday of my return to the Old Bay
State! Besides, the frontiersman misrepresented himself. For, seated
by his ample clay-stick-and-stone fireplace, how his eye kindled, and
tones mellowed, as he treated us to reminiscences of his early days!
And what a grip he gave the hand of a freshly-arrived Yankee!

Then there were those east who said, "You will soon tire of the West."
They, also, were mistaken. An invalid, with shadowy form and trembling
limbs, when I left New England, I awakened to a new life in Minnesota.
"Take a gun on your shoulders, kill and eat the wild game of the
prairies," said my medical friends. I anticipated vicissitude and
deprivation in following such counsel; but these toughened my weak
frame, and added zest to frontier labors and pleasures; for I was soon
able to do a man's share of the former, and in threading forest and
prairie I was brought into delightful nearness to nature in its
beauty, freshness, and magnitude, and in visiting the lodge of the
Indian and the cabins of the settlers I met with plenty of adventure.

In writing this work, I have, with peculiar interest, lived over the
scenes and incidents of my varied frontier experience; have travelled
once more amid the waving grasses and beckoning flowers; heard again
the bark of the wolf, and the voices of birds; felt on my brow the
kiss of the health-giving breeze; worshipped anew in the log-cabin
sanctuary. Yes, East and West are both dear to me. One fittingly
supplements the other. Each holds the ashes of kindred. By a singular
providence, since this tale was completed, a much-loved relative, one
of the gentlest and most self-sacrificing whose presence ever
glorified the earth, has found a resting-place in the bosom of the
very prairie I had in mind while penning these pages. Sent west by
physicians to save her life, she reached that spot in time to die,
thus attaching my heart to that soil by another and sorrowful tie.

That East and West may be bound together by love, as well as by
national and commercial relations, and that this story may tend in its
humble way to so happy a result, is the earnest wish of

                                                           THE AUTHOR.




CONTENTS


 CHAPTER                                                          PAGE
      I. The Pioneer Family.--A Spirited Chase.                      9
     II. Shooting Double.--A Frontier Doctor.                       23
    III. Where Can He Be?--A Heart Revelation.                      35
     IV. A Brush With Indians.--A Black Heart.                      47
      V. Brother Smith and Quarter Stakes.                          65
     VI. Mrs. Jones's Story.--The Gray Wolf.                        79
    VII. A Sabbath on the Prairie.                                  93
   VIII. Tom's Victory.                                            105
     IX. A Surprise.                                               116
      X. "No Whiskey at This Raising!"                             126
     XI. Old Mrs. Skinflint in Trouble.--Lost in the Woods.        142
    XII. Fire and Flood.                                           158
   XIII. The Indian Lodge.                                         170
    XIV. The War-Song.                                             187
     XV. The Massacre at Spirit Lake.                              194
    XVI. A Beleaguered Cabin.                                      210
   XVII. The Mysterious Fire.                                      226
  XVIII. The Boy in the Tree.                                      237
    XIX. Bub's Broadside.                                          250
     XX. Long Hair.                                                260
    XXI. "Pull the String, Bub."                                   272
   XXII. Tom and the Money-Lender.                                 285
  XXIII. An Enchanting Scene.--The Parting.                        295




THE CABIN ON THE PRAIRIE.

CHAPTER I.

THE PIONEER FAMILY.--A SPIRITED CHASE.


"There, the last hill is dug, and I'm glad!" and Tom Jones leaned on
his hoe, lost in thought.

He was a stout lad of sixteen, with frowzy brown hair, crowned by a
brimless straw hat, and his pants looked as if they had been turned
inside out and outside in, upside down and downside up, and darned and
patched and re-darned and patched again, until time, and labor, and
cloth enough, such as it was, had been used to fabricate a number of
pairs of pants. As for boots,--for his lower extremities were not
wholly destitute of protection,--they might have come down to him as
an heir-loom from a pauper of a preceding generation. But what
mattered it to him that his clothes were threadbare, many-hued, and
grotesque? or that his boots let the deep, rich soil in at sides and
toes? Was he not a "squatter sovereign," or the son of one, free in
his habits as the Indian that roamed the prairies of his frontier
home? He had not heard of "the latest fashion," and paid no attention
to the cut of his garments, although, it must be confessed, he
sometimes wished them a trifle more spruce and comfortable. His home,
as I have hinted, was on the prairie. Nevertheless, the family domain
was an unpretending one. Less than an acre, fenced in the rudest
manner, enclosed the "farm and farm buildings," the latter consisting
of a small log house and log pigsty, the cabin, at the time our sketch
opens, being, it is evident, at least two seasons old--a fact which
serves to show the more plainly the poverty and thriftlessness of the
inmates; for they have had time, certainly, to cultivate quite a tract
of the easily-tilled land, had they enterprise and industry. But they
belonged to a class not famous for these virtues--the restless,
ever-moving class that pioneer the way towards the setting sun. But
perhaps we are leaving the boy propped too long on his hoe. Let us
take a more critical look at him. "Fine feathers don't make fine
birds," observes the old proverb. Forgetting the dress, then, please
study his face. A clear, deep-blue eye, delicately-arched eyebrows,
regular features, mouth and chin indicating decision and native
refinement, and a well-developed forehead. Ah, here may be a diamond
in the rough! Who knows?

The squatter's son looked about him with a dissatisfied air. "I do
wish," he soliloquized, "that I could see something of the world, and
do something for myself. Here we've been changing around from one
place to another, doing nothing but raise a few potatoes and a little
corn, living in a miserable cabin, where there are no schools, and
scarcely any neighbors. It's too bad to spend all our days so. I
believe we were made for something better; and, as the minister told
us Sunday, we ought to try and be somebody, and not float along as the
stick on the stream. I'm sure it isn't, and never was, to mother's
mind; and, as to father--" And here he stopped and pondered, as if
trying to solve a mystery, and in a style that would have been
pronounced philosophic, had he been a college professor--scratched his
head. Then, with his ragged sleeve, he wiped the sweat from his brow,
leaving a streak of black that made that part of his face present
quite a different appearance from what it did, reader, when you and I
noticed it a moment ago. And going to the cabin, he returned with a
rickety basket, and, commencing at the lower end of the field, began
picking up the potatoes that had been left drying in the sun. A
goodly crop had the little patch produced; for the vegetable decays
and fertilizing rains and snows of centuries had covered the prairie
with a dressing with which art could not compete, and it was more
difficult not to get a harvest from the seed sown than to get one. The
rows of hills were covered with the bountiful returns brought up to
the light of day by Tom's well-used hoe. It was not, however, the
size, quality, or number of the potatoes that most interested Tom just
then. The fact that they were all out of the ground; that the corn was
cut and stacked, and the pumpkins ready to be housed; that the fall
work could be finished by that afternoon's sun-setting,--stirred him
strangely; for he had of late begun to question the future, to learn
what it had in store for him. He had come to realize, in a degree,
that that future would be very much what he chose to make it. And
serious dissatisfaction with the past and the present filled his heart
with disquiet.

Tom's memory had been active for a few days. How like yesterday it
seemed, when he was a little child, and his father, getting together
money enough, bought a horse and wagon, and, putting the family in the
vehicle, started out prospecting for a new home farther from the
advancing waves of civilization! How many similar expeditions had
they taken since, and how painfully had their experiences illustrated
the saying, "A rolling stone gathers no moss"! But roll Mr. Jones
would. Tom knew this too well. It was, indeed, viewed in one aspect,
an easy way to get on, this going in one's own conveyance from place
to place of Uncle Sam's unsettled lands; this living off the country,
gypsying in the woods and on the prairies; this two thirds savage and
one third civilized mode of putting a growing family through the
world; and if you were to see Mr. Jones seated in the emigrant wagon,
reins in hand and pipe in mouth, or with shouldered rifle on the track
of a deer, you would say that such a life was eminently agreeable to
him. Every man is made for something; and you would say that he was
cut out for a wandering frontier loafer, who gets his subsistence by
doing the least possible work in the easiest possible manner, and
hunting and fishing. A horse and wagon, or extemporized log cabin, for
a shelter; tools enough for the simplest tilling of the soil, and
furniture for the rudest housekeeping and clothing; the making over,
by the industrious wife, of clothes bought "some time back,"--such was
the way the Joneses lived. Putting up a small log house by the bank of
a river for the sake of the fish, and near a forest for the game, with
"a strip of clean prairie" for "garden sarce,"--there they might
remain for a year or two; then you would be quite sure to find the
immigrant friend looking discontented, and expressing a wish to "sell
his claim."

"It's growing so crowded with folks coming into the country, I can't
go three miles without stumbling against a shanty or a house; and cart
tracks are getting so plenty, I can't stand it. I must pull up stakes,
and go farther on to find a place to breathe in."

And, perchance, realizing a trifle for his claim and improvements,
Dobbin is hitched anew into the crazy old wagon. The broken crockery,
and leaky black tea-pot, and ancient cooking-stove--the pipe of the
latter running up through the wagon-top--are once more aboard, wife
and children packed in, and the uneasy frontiersman is pushing out
again towards solitude.

Tom had been reviewing this bit of family history more in detail, and
much more vividly than we have now done. The result was a feeling of
disgust, and a resolution to break away from such a life, and an
endeavor for something higher.

But what had brought the squatter's son to such a conclusion? The
condition of the family had for some time been unsatisfactory to Tom.
Though brought up in this roving, improvident way, his better nature
often revolted against it; not, however, so strongly and decisively
as now. Still, desires, and even longings, for something better had
flitted through his mind, only to make him moody and irritable.
Doubtless these aspirations were due, in no small measure, to his
mother--a woman much superior to her condition, but who, clinging to
her husband with a pure and changeless love, accepted the privations
of her lot without a murmur. Taken by her marriage from the comforts
and advantages of a good home, she had followed his fortunes "for
better or for worse," having much more of the latter, in a worldly
point of view, than the former. Not that Mr. Jones was a hard or a
dissipated man; but his roving habits, and the deprivations and
poverty they endured, had made her days sad and toil-worn.

Tom, in his tastes, was like his mother. But a new event had recently
occurred. A godly minister, in search of the lost sheep of the
heavenly fold, had made his way into the region, and, the Sabbath
previous to the opening of our sketch, had, in earnest, eloquent
words, preached the gospel to the settlers. The log cabin, in which
the services were held, was only a mile and a half distant, and Tom
and his father, with the neighbors generally, attended. How
differently the gospel message affects different persons! Some are
softened, others are hardened, by it. Some are stirred up to certain
duties, while, under the same sermon, others are incited to an
entirely different train of thought and course of action. The effect
on Tom of the sermons of the preacher was to incite his feelings to
revolt against his lot in life, and arouse him to the necessity of a
purpose in living. He did not look forward so much to the world to
come as to the "to come" of this world. The present in its relations
to life here--this was the point with him; and he revolved the
subject, viewing it in every possible light, until a decision was
reached.

"This preacher," said he, "is from a region of schools and privileges.
Why can I not seek such advantages, and be somebody, and accomplish
something? Why can I not go to the city to school this winter?" What
an idea for him! It almost took his breath to think of it. And, then,
how should he get there? Where was the money coming from to support
him while studying?

"I must work and earn it," he replied. "I can do anything honest; I
can, at least, work for my board."

Tom's mind had suffered from a famine of knowledge. He could read
passably well, write a little, was good at reckoning, and the little
he knew excited a craving for more. Public addresses had always moved
him deeply, and the living truths of the gospel, as presented by the
living preacher, had set the mental machinery in motion, until the
decision to go from home in search of an education, had been wrought
out; and it was this rising purpose that kept him so patiently at his
day's task of finishing up the fall work, that he might commence his
new career.

"I will finish getting in the crops by dark," said he, as he filled
the basket, "and then there will be nothing to keep me at home;" and
he was about raising the basket to his shoulder, when he was startled
from his reveries by a loud cry of,--

"Tom, Tom! come quick! I've caught a fawn, and he'll get away!" It was
twelve-year-old Charley from the hazel bushes that bordered the
potato-patch near the woods. Tom ran to assist his brother, but could
scarcely believe his eyes when he saw the little fellow had caught the
fawn by the tail, and was struggling to hold the agile creature,
forgetting how dexterously the deer can use his heels. Scarcely had
the elder brother mounted the fence, when, with a smart kick, the fawn
sent Charley over on his back, and leaped into the enclosure. At this
instant a bevy of flaxen-haired urchins, hatless, bonnetless,--Tom's
brothers and sisters,--came whooping from the cabin, and joined the
chase. In a moment Tom had forgotten all his gloomy thoughts and high
resolves, and was as eager as any of them, as they tried to secure the
nimble prize. A lively time it was, too; fear and speed against
numbers, noise, and strategy. A good force were the pursuers; the
"olive plants" of the Joneses grew very naturally in regular
gradations, like the steps of a flight of stairs. Tom, Eliza, Charley,
Bob, Sarah, Bill, and Bub, the four-year-old, were all active with
hands, legs, and lungs, while the mother stood in the doorway,
surveying the scene, with baby in her arms.

"Fix up the fence where the deer jumped in!" cried Tom to Charley; and
the latter hastened to repair the breach, for the brush had been
broken down at that point.

From corner to corner and side to side bounded the deer, slipping
through the fingers of one and another of the youngsters; but they
gave him no rest.

"Stop him, 'Lize! Hold him, Bob! Head him off. Say! Get out of the
way, Bub! There! why didn't you catch him, Charley? Mother, can't you
put down baby, and help us? He'll get away! There! he's going over the
fence! No, he isn't!" Amid such vociferations the children rushed on,
pell-mell, till out of breath. Luckily, the brush fence was so thick
and high, being made of dead trees piled upon each other, that the
animal could find no point to push through or scale, especially while
kept in "running order" by his pursuers. Although thus imprisoned, he
was baffling their efforts, refusing to be captured, when Tom said to
the children,--

"We can't catch him this way. But if you will all do as I tell you, I
guess we can." The fawn was standing in the further corner of the
field, as if waiting to see what they would do next. And Tom, ranging
his force in line, himself at the head, gave the word to advance
towards the deer.

"Steady, steady," said he, as they neared the animal. They had
succeeded in approaching within a few yards, and Tom, with outspread
arms and eagle eye, advanced slowly, watching to seize him if he
should attempt to spring away, when little Bub, who had been sent into
the cabin by Tom, having gone around unobserved on the outside of the
garden behind the deer, suddenly ran a sharp stick through the brush
into the creature's back, saying,--

"I make 'im wun!"

Frantically jumped the deer at this--a _denouement_ so unexpected to
his assailants, that the line became broken, the little soldiers were
tumbled together, with Tom on top of them, and the deer stood almost
at the same instant at the other end of the patch, the whole being
accomplished with marvellous quickness.

"Get off my head!" screamed Sarah from under the heap.

"O, dear, you'll break my arm!" cried Eliza.

"What did you fall on me for?" angrily demanded Bob of Charley, as he
spit the dirt from his mouth. "You did it on purpose--you know you
did!"

"No, I didn't!"

"Yes, you did!"

"I should a thought Tom might a held the deer, an' not fell on us so
heavy," sobbed Sarah, rubbing her eyes with her begrimed gown.

But while they fretted, the fawn had been critically examining the
fence to find egress, seeing which the children dried their tears, and
made for him again; and at length the graceful creature, bewildered by
the din, and foiled by numbers, was forced to surrender himself after
another vigorous scramble, in which the basket of potatoes was
overturned, and the corn scattered in delightful disorder, and was
borne by Tom in triumph to the cabin, accompanied by the excited
group.

"We've got him, marm--we've got him!" they shouted in chorus as they
followed their leader into the house.

"And where will you keep him to-night?" she inquired.

"He tan seep with me!" promptly answered Bub, at which there was much
merriment.

"No," replied Tom, shaking his head at the mischief-maker, "you will
stick a stick into his back, and 'make 'im wun' again."

After much deliberation it was decided that the fawn be tied to a
bed-post, while a pen was built for his accommodation near the cabin.
This was soon accomplished, and the fawn placed in it.

When Tom returned to his work, the day was far gone. He gazed around
with regret as he saw that not only was it now too late to finish
getting in the crops, but that the chase of the deer, in which he had
engaged with so much ardor, had made him no little extra labor. What a
task it would be to find all the potatoes, scattered and trampled into
the rich earth as they were! and the bundles of corn had been broken
from their bindings, and must be gathered together and refastened. To
find and carry in the potatoes consumed the time till supper; and
then, at his mother's call, he went in depressed and unhappy, and
after bringing in the wood for the breakfast fire, and feeding the
pigs, he went up the rude ladder to his straw bed on the floor.

It was scanty fare that the Jones family had. You could see that by
their looks. It is true that they were healthy and strong; but they
lacked the fair, plump development that plenty of food of a suitable
variety gives to childhood and youth. Of vegetables they were not
destitute; potatoes, corn, beans, and pumpkins they had in abundance
since fall set in, if not before. Bread, milk, and meat were usually
scarce with them. For the latter they depended principally on the
father's rifle; but as he was apt to take wide and eccentric tramps
over the prairies, there would be long intervals when but little game
from his gun made savory the family cooking.

Mr. Jones had been away for some days now, and his patient wife had
really suffered for food. Vegetables of the same kind, served up
pretty much in the same way, with little to give relish to them, a big
crying infant the while tugging at her breast, and the house-work to
do, it is not strange that while the children, fresh from romping in
the bracing prairie air, were favored with a ravenous appetite, she
had little. Tom understood all this; for, constituted like her, he,
too, felt the deprivations of the table, although in a less degree,
and much did he worry about her meagre diet.

"Ah," he thought, as he lay down for the night, "when I am away and
earning, won't I send the good things to mother!"




CHAPTER II.

SHOOTING DOUBLE.--A FRONTIER DOCTOR.


Tom slept soundly, and notwithstanding he charged his memory to awaken
him before daybreak, dawn was brightening the east while he was still
in the shadowy land of dreams. The low attic had no window, save a
pane of glass nailed over a hole under the eaves; and long the lad
might have slumbered on, had not a loud sound suddenly aroused him.

"Does it thunder?" he exclaimed, fearing a prairie tempest had arisen
to interfere with his cherished project of leaving home.

Peering through the window pane, he saw, to his surprise, that the
morning was cloudless. What could it mean? Assuredly he had heard the
rolling of thunder! He looked out again, for another and more
agreeable thought had struck him.

"Yes, it's the hens!" he ejaculated; "my! what a heap of them!"

By "the hens," he meant prairie hens; for in this familiar way they
are spoken of at the west. They had spied out the corn, and the fact
that it was there, by some telegraphic system in vogue among the
birds, had spread for miles around; and making their way through the
tall grass from every direction, at once, as the sun appeared, they
flew in a huge body over the little cabin into the field. For this
species of grouse (_Tetrao cupido_) are models of good order and
punctuality as to their meals, and many an _eastern_ boy or girl
might, we suspect, get a useful hint from them on table etiquette.
They assemble, as if by appointment, around the farmer's grain-field,
and quietly wait for the breakfast signal, which is the rising of the
sun, then enter the enclosure together, and having fed just one hour
by their unerring chronometer, they retire, to return at sunset for
another hour's feeding. This was their first visit to Mr. Jones's
patch; doubtless the trampled and scattered corn had tempted them in
now.

Tom's eyes danced for joy, as, peeping at the hens, he hurried on his
clothes. Hundreds were there pecking along like so many turkeys. It
was the combined whirr of their wings that woke him so effectually;
many an older person on the frontier has been deceived by the same
sound, supposing it to be thunder, so heavy a noise do these wild fowl
of the prairies make when numbers of them fly together.

"Won't mother be glad!" he whispered to himself; "and what a dinner
she'll have to-day!" And descending the ladder, he took from the
hooked pegs overhead his father's old shot-gun, where it had hung
unused for months, and from a little box some powder and shot, and a
percussion cap; then loading in haste, he rested the weapon on the
window-sill, that he might take steady aim, and fired at the fowl. A
terrible report followed, and Tom came to himself to find his mother
bathing his forehead, and his sisters crying. The gun was out of
order, and, being also overloaded, had blown off the lock, burning his
face, and stunning him by the recoil.

Poor Tom returned to consciousness to suffer. His face began rapidly
to swell, and presented a frightful appearance, so blackened was it by
the powder, and the smarting was intense. Mrs. Jones, in her isolated
life, had been too many times thrown on her own resources to be wholly
overcome by the disaster. Her chief anxiety was lest Tom's eyes were
destroyed, as the eyebrows and eyelashes had been completely burned
off by the explosion. When she saw, however, that he was not blind,
she said, with tears,--

"O, how glad I am, dear child, that your eyes are spared!"

A couple of miles away lived a doctor,--or an individual who wore
that title,--on whom, in emergencies, the scattered settlers were
wont to call. This queer Æsculapian specimen was remarkably tall and
lank, always went with his pants tucked in the tops of his thumping
cowhide boots, and wore a red woollen shirt, the soiled and limpsy
neck-band of which, coming nearly to his ears, served instead of a
collar. He dwelt alone, with his cat, in a rude, claim-shanty,
sleeping with his window open and door unfastened; and if his
services were needed in the night, the messenger would put his
head in at the window and call to him, or pull the latch-string
and walk in. The doctor was pompous in conversation, and affected
long words; but it was understood--unfortunately for his
patients--that his advantages had been poor.

For this worthy Charley had been promptly despatched by his mother;
and good time did the child make, so frightened was he about poor Tom.
He was an imaginative lad, and, when much excited, apt to see "two
hundred black cats fighting in the yard," when there was only a
frolicsome kitten chasing its tail; and at such times he had the bad
habit of running his words together. He was just the one to send on
the errand, so far as speed was concerned; but when he burst into the
doctor's cabin, shouting,--

"Blews-sed-off! blews-sed-off!" the slumbering man of herbs
prematurely awakened, rubbed his forehead, to be sure he was not
dreaming, and stammered,--

"Wha-wha-what's to pay?"

"Blews-sed-off! blews-sed off!" reiterated the urchin.

"Boy," said the doctor, now fully aroused, "be self-possessed and
collected, and state distinctly what has happened." And holding the
lad by the shoulders, he added, "Speak very slowly, that I may
understand you!"

"Blew--his--head--off!" emphatically repeated Charley, pausing after
each word.

"A shocking occurrence, truly!" ejaculated the physician. "I do not
wonder, boy, that one so unaccustomed to such sanguinary events should
be terrified. But who is the unfortunate victim of this tragical and
fatal accident--or was he murdered in cold blood?"

"Yes, sir," replied Charley, who, in turn, did not understand the
doctor, but supposed he must assent to all he said.

"Yes--what?" sharply asked the physician. "Was it, I say, an accident,
or was the man assassinated? Be quick, now!"

"Yesir!" instantly screamed Charley, thinking the doctor was now
reproving him for speaking slowly.

"Well, you _are_ scared out of your seven senses, you wretched dunce!"
retorted the doctor, out of temper; and, shaking the lad, he said,
"See if you can tell me now who it is that's killed."

"It's our Tom!"

"And how do _I_ know who your Tom is?" roared the physician. "There's
_my_ Tom;" and he pointed to a monstrous gray cat that sat on an oak
chest watching the boy with green-glaring eyes; "and if he should
mistake you for a thieving gopher some fine morning, and eat you up
alive, small loss would it be to the world, I'm thinking!"

"He's my brother!" timidly interposed Charley, keeping to the
question.

"Your brother! Well, old hunter, what do you say to that?" said the
doctor, stroking his disagreeable pet: "that dirty-faced, uncombed,
ill-dressed ignoramus of a boy claims you for a relative. Do you
realize the honor, eh?"

"I mean that _our_ Tom is my brother," explained Charley, bursting
into tears.

The doctor, softened by his distress, asked more gently,--

"But hasn't your Tom any other name?"

"No, sir," answered the boy.

"Well, what is _your_ name?"

"Charley."

"Charley what?"

"Charley Jones."

"O, I see! you belong to the Jones tribe; not much matter if all their
heads were blown off. But what do you want of me?"

"Mother wants you to come right down quick, and make Tom well."

"What! after his head's blown off? That's a job, anyhow. Nice-looking
young man he'd be--wouldn't he? going round, well as ever, without any
head on his shoulders. But I see how it is: his head isn't all
gone--just a trifle left--enough to grow another with;" and the
doctor, now in good humor, succeeded in drawing from the lad an
intelligible account of the accident, and mounting his horse, with
saddle-bags behind him, and a tin pail in his hand, he proceeded to a
well-to-do settler's, and narrating the accident with nearly as much
exaggeration as did little Charley, he added, with an emphatic jerk of
his collar, "I'll fix the fellow up so that he'll be as good as new."
He then begged some yeast, and a roll of cotton batting, and,
repairing to the Joneses, covered Tom's face with the cotton dipped in
the yeast, and returned to his loggery. Whether the application was in
accordance with the _Materia Medica_ of orthodox practice or not,
after a short time the pain subsided, and Tom dropped into a peaceful
sleep; seeing which, Mrs. Jones went about her morning's work with a
thankful heart. The children had had nothing to eat as yet, and now
that their brother's moanings had ceased, they realized that they were
hungry.

"Tan't I have my supper?" sobbed Bub, clinging to his mother's dress
as she walked.

"'Tisn't supper; it's breakfast!" answered Bob, giving the child a
push, which helped him cry the louder.

"Cry-baby cripsy," mocked Bob, making ugly faces at the little fellow;
for fasting had made Bob quarrelsome.

Sad-eyed Mrs. Jones tried in vain to quiet them, carrying and nursing
baby and preparing the meal at the same time, for even the older
children were cross as unfed cubs. Mrs. Jones was no disciplinarian;
she was too broken-spirited to command her offspring; if she ruled at
all, it was by affection and tact. In this instance she set the older
ones at work. One she directed to replenish the fire, another to wash
the potatoes, a third to sweep the floor: a slow job the latter was,
as the "truncheon," or floor of split logs, was jagged, and the broom
worn nearly to the handle. She suggested to Charley to see if the fawn
had got away, which had the effect of causing Bub to go on the same
mission. This stratagem, however, did not avail much in the case of
Charley, who quickly saw through his mother's device, and returned,
exclaiming,--

"Pooh! I guess the fawn's all right!"

But Bub found congenial occupation in teasing the fawn. The pen was
narrow; and Bub, not being able to reach the deer, and tired of
shouting at him, started off into the field for a famous long stick
which had served him for a steed the day before. As he looked for it
among the corn, he saw something flutter, then heard a curious cackle.
It was a prairie hen, whose wings had been broken by shot from Tom's
gun. The bird moved painfully away, trying to hide behind the leafy
stalks. But Bub's bright eyes could not be eluded, and he followed
after, calling, "Chick, chick, chick!" mistaking it for a domestic
fowl. The cunning bird dodged in and out among the standing and
prostrate stacks with marvellous swiftness, considering its condition;
but persevering curly-pate seized the hen at last by the neck, saying,
exultantly,--

"I dot yer; now you 'have!"

The strong wild fowl struggled desperately, scratching his chubby hand
until it bled; but Bub trudged on with his prize into the cabin,
saying, as he entered,--

"See, marm! I totched a biddy!"

The little captor's entrance was greeted with shouts of delight on the
part of the children, and by a loving kiss from his mother; for Bub
was a great favorite, and a manly wee boy, despite his loud-lunged
blubbering, in which he excelled on occasions, and his mischievious
pranks, in which also he was the equal of Bubs of more civilized
communities. As he stood in the cabin door, coolly holding the kicking
prairie hen, heedless of its cruel claws, his torn and soiled
baby-frock surmounted by a round fat face, bright blue eyes, and light
hair falling in tangled ringlets, the golden sun resting upon his bare
head and lighting up his dimpled cheek, he formed a picture worthy the
pencil of an artist.

"What a little man you are!" exclaimed the mother, taking the heavy
fowl from him. "You shall have some nice breakfast for this!" and she
put a baked potato and a piece of corn-cake on the corner of a trunk,
and while Bub with a satisfied hum partook of the food, she quietly
slipped out of doors and wrung the hen's neck.

The children plied the little hero with questions as to where and how
he caught the hen, which he took his own time to answer while he
munched. Then they rushed out in a body, hoping to find another. Their
search was successful, and they brought back two, which they found
lying some distance apart, quite dead. The old gun had "scattered"
prodigiously, but, as the flock of hens was so large, did good
execution, as appeared from the result.

Tom was asleep on his mother's bed,--which occupied a corner of the
one room,--but, aroused by the din which greeted Bub when he came in
with the "biddy," regarded the affair quite complacently, although he
said nothing. And as the hens were being picked by 'Lize and Sarah,
he was comforted by the reflection that his well-meant attempt at
gunning had brought the family something to eat. Tom, indeed, had
never seen fowl prepared for the household under just such
circumstances, and he watched each step in the process with peculiar
interest. Mrs. Jones, with a fond mother's quickness, understood well
how he felt, and, though she seemed not to notice him, made unusual
parade in all that was done.

"Be very careful of those feathers, girls. Why, how thick and soft
they are! We'll save every one; and who knows but when Tom gets well
he'll contrive some traps and catch hens enough to make a pair of
pillows, or a feather-bed?"

"Is a feather-bed very nice?" asked Sarah.

"Very, when the weather is cold, and a body is weakly, as Tom is now;
it's so easy to rest upon. There, Eliza, you may pass me the one that
is picked, and I'll dress it. How fat it is! and so tender! What a
feast we shall have! How thankful we ought to be that Tom's eyes were
not put out when he shot these hens! How good he was to think of
getting them for us! I hope, girls, you'll help him all you can, when
he gets about, and not let him do all the chores."

Mrs. Jones was very handy at such work, and she took care to face the
bed so that he might see every part of the operation.

"There's the heart, and there's the liver--sweet as a nut!" and she
smelled of them with the air of an epicure. "We must keep them by
themselves for the present." Then, deftly jointing the fowl, she put
the parts to soak in cold water, strongly salted. "That will take out
the _wild_ taste," said she. "How I do wish Tom could eat some of this
when it is cooked, it will be so strengthening! But I guess, if
nothing happens, the doctor will let him have a taste to-morrow!"




CHAPTER III.

WHERE CAN HE BE?--A HEART REVELATION.


"Where can he be?" sighed Mrs. Jones, as she looked anxiously out of
the little cabin window. Many times a day had she done the same, save
that she _thought_ the question, but did not utter it, as now. Her
husband had been away for more than a week, and no tidings from him.
What could it mean? When would he return? Had any evil befallen him?
These and similar inquiries were continually arising in her mind,
filling her with disquiet. She was one of those singularly-constituted
persons who are given to presentiments, and who, when they are under
the spell of a deep, controlling conviction that something unusual is
to transpire,--a persuasion that comes to them, not through reason or
evidence, or the probabilities of things, but, as some express it, "as
if a voice had spoken to them" when no human being was near, or by a
secret whispering to the soul by some unseen and seemingly superhuman
authority,--when she had such a presentiment it never deceived her.
For some time she had foreboded trouble. The foreboding grew upon her
till its dark shadow cast a gloom upon all her feelings; it thrilled
her at times with fear. She would start at the veriest trifles, as if
affrighted. Particularly at night did she cower under the feeling, and
of late it had been hard for her to sleep; and when she slept, it was
wakefully: often would she start up, and look around to see that all
was right, then fall asleep again. And yet she did not apprehend
danger to herself particularly. Sometimes she feared for her husband;
but the growing feeling was, that trouble for the settlers was at
hand, and a terrible fear of the Indians rested upon her.

It was far into the night now, and the lone watcher felt too uneasy to
retire. The moon shone with great brilliancy, and she sat without a
light, busying herself with some coarse sewing. The children were
peacefully sleeping, and not a sound was to be heard save their
breathing, and the whisper of the wind outside. The silence was
painful to her, and she arose and peered out of the window again.
Everything looked weird and ghastly. What a solitude! For miles over
the smooth prairie not a human habitation was to be seen. In the other
direction stood the mysterious forest. How black and dismal seemed the
trunks of the trees in the shimmering moonbeams! She gazed timidly at
their indistinct outlines, with strained eye.

"How foolish I am!" she murmured; but, as she turned from the window,
her attention was fixed once more upon the forest; for it seemed to
her that a dark object moved along its outskirts. "It's only the
trees!" she said, striving to reassure herself.

But in a moment more an ox appeared; then a dark figure followed, and
another, and another, walking in single file. As the strange
procession emerged more fully into view, she saw that the forms behind
the ox were those of Indians; they were driving off the settlers'
cattle. As their route lay near the cabin, fear that they would pay
her a visit, for a moment quite paralyzed her. It was but for a
moment, however; the instinct of the mother was roused. Her children
might be murdered. She glanced again at the advancing savages, and
then, softly opening the door,--which, fortunately, was on the other
side of the cabin,--she returned with the axe, the only weapon of
defence at hand, and, with flashing eyes, and a deadly resolution
depicted on her face, which seemed turned to marble, silently awaited
the onslaught. But the savages, in their soft moccasins, glided
noiselessly by, like so many snakes. They did not appear to notice the
cabin, and were soon out of sight. When they were gone, Mrs. Jones
sat down, feeling as weak as before she had felt strong. The reaction
was too great, and, a faintness coming on, her head sank upon the side
of the bed where Tom lay. This aroused him, and he called,
repeatedly,--

"Mother! mother!"

"Hush," she whispered, at last; "they'll hear you!"

"Who?" whispered Tom, alarmed.

The mother kept perfectly still, listening intently, until satisfied
that the danger was really past; then she related to her son what she
had seen, and what her fears had been.

"But, mother," said Tom, confidently, "there are no signs of trouble
from them. They wouldn't dare to attack the settlers; for they have
always been beaten by the white man. Besides, there are not many near
us. You see that these have not harmed us; they only stole an ox. Why,
mother, don't you know that there has been no Indian war for a good
many years, and that the Indians have been growing weaker and weaker
all the time, and going farther and farther off?"

This was plausible; and Tom only expressed the views of the settlers.
Mrs. Jones knew that there was no reason for her anxiety, except her
fears, and she had not ventured to express them to any one before;
for she was aware, such was the prevalent feeling on this subject,
that it would expose her to ridicule. But now she only shook her head,
and said,--

"I wish your father was safe at home."

"Why, mother, you don't worry about him--do you?" exclaimed Tom, in
amazement. "The Indians always liked him, and he can go anywhere over
the prairies and through the woods without guide or compass, and not
get lost. And he's a great marksman, you know: it wouldn't do for an
Indian to get in the way of his rifle."

"But, Tom," said the mother, taking his hand, and suddenly changing
the subject, "why is it that you don't get better faster? Your skin is
real hot, and you look feverish. The doctor said you ought to have
been out before this." Tom looked down, but did not reply. "Tom,"
continued she, tenderly, "something is troubling your mind. I have
known it for some time. Don't you love your mother well enough to make
her your confidant? What is the matter, my son?"

Still the lad did not reply; but his heart was deeply moved by this
unexpected and loving attack upon the citadel that held his secret
secure, as he had supposed. Soon the tears began to stream from his
eyes, and he sobbed aloud.

Mrs. Jones's eyes closed, and her lips moved as if she were in
prayer; upon which Tom, after she had ceased, asked, softly,--

"Mother, are you a Christian?"

"That is a serious question, my son," said she. "I sometimes hope that
I am one; but it is a great thing to be a true follower of the Lord
Jesus Christ. But why do you ask?"

"O," replied he, embarrassed, "I don't just know why. I know you're
_good_ enough to be a Christian; but you never spoke to us children
about it, and--I didn't know what to think."

Mrs. Jones seemed pained by the answer, and said,--

"Tom, I know I have been negligent in this matter." Then she added,
hesitatingly, "But your father does not feel as I do about it; and I
have scarcely felt like instructing the children contrary to his
views. I have ever tried to please him in everything; perhaps I have
carried this too far."

"Mother, were you praying just now?"

"Yes," said she, hesitatingly.

"And were you praying for me?"

"Yes, my son."

Tom was silent for a while, and then said,--

"Mother, since I heard the preacher, I have many times wished I were a
Christian; that is, if--if--the Bible is true. But there are some
things that I don't understand, and they are right in my way."

"What are they, Tom?" He colored, and said,--

"I don't like to tell you, for I am afraid you will think me very bad.
But I thought some time I would like to ask some one about it who
knows more than I do. You believe that there is a God, mother?"

"With all my heart."

"And that he is pleased with those who do good, and angry with those
who do wrong?"

"Certainly, Tom."

"Well, it seems hard, if this is true, that he should let me get hurt
so the other morning, as I was trying to shoot the hens for you, and
you needed them so much, when there's Jo Priest, and ever so many
more, swearing, ugly fellows, that go a gunning almost all the time,
and kill things just for the fun of it, and they get plenty of game,
and never get injured;" and the lad spoke bitterly.

"My child," said the mother, "there are many things hard to be
understood about God's dealings with us, and I am afraid that a great
part of them seem harder than they really are, because we are so
ignorant. But you know how I am situated. I don't hear any preaching,
nor see those that do, very often; and it's not to be expected that I
can clear up these things, as they can."

"I wish," interrupted Tom, petulantly, "that the preacher was here.
I'd like to ask him; but perhaps he wouldn't like to talk with a poor
ignorant boy like me."

"Well," continued the mother, "I know _here_"--and she placed her hand
upon her heart--"that all God does is just right, however dark it
seems, and that satisfies me."

Tom was impressed by his mother's faith, but soon objected,--

"Mother, do you think we can always trust our feelings? You said a
little while ago that you _felt_ that there would be trouble with the
Indians; but nobody expects that. And now you say that you _feel_ that
all God does is right. Now, if you are wrong about the Indians, and
about father's being in danger from them, how can you be sure that
your feelings are right about God?"

"Tom," replied she, "I have a great many impressions that come to
nothing. But there are _some_ that _never_ do. And I _know_ that God
does right; for I _feel_ that he does; and, Tom, we shall see about
the Indians;" and she sighed heavily, and rose, and gazed long and
earnestly off over the prairie, and towards the woods. Then, seating
herself on the bedside, she said, gently,--

"My son, you haven't told me all your troubles yet. Hadn't you better
hold nothing back from me?"

The lad turned away at this, deeply touched again; "for," thought he,
"her feelings are right about me; perhaps they are about God;" and her
persevering and delicate solicitude pierced his very soul.

"Mother," said he, at length, struggling with emotion, "I don't want
to grow up ignorant and useless. And I don't want the children and us
all to be so poor and despised;" and the tears came again, and the
mother's mingled with his. "I can't bear to have it so, and I
_won't_," he added, rising in bed, and speaking with excited energy.

"Ah, my poor child," said the mother, "I knew it was that that lay on
your mind, and took away your appetite, and made you so unhappy. And I
have been praying for a long while that you might feel so."

"You didn't want me to be miserable--did you, mother?" asked Tom, in
surprise.

"God forbid, Tom. But I couldn't wish you to grow up contented with
such a life. I have felt that you might do a great deal of good in the
world, and I wished you to see it."

"But, mother, how can I have things different?"

"Tom," returned she, looking searchingly at him, "how have you thought
to make them different?" The boy averted his face again, and made no
reply for a moment, and then said, softly,--

"I had decided to go away and get learning, and earn my living, and
try to be somebody."

"And when did you think of starting?"

"The morning," answered he, with an unsteady voice, "that I got hurt
with the gun."

"And were you going off without letting me know it, Tom?"

"Yes, mother; but I expected to write back, and tell you all about
it."

"Tom," returned the mother, tenderly, "you asked me, a little while
ago, why it was that God let you get hurt that morning when you were
trying to kill the hens for the family, while those bad boys go
uninjured. I believe God's ways were right in this. Why, my dear
child, you are better to me, and more necessary to me, at present,
than many prairie hens; and you might have harmed yourself more by
going from home than you were by the powder. You meant it well, Tom;
but you reasoned about going away, just as you reasoned about God's
dealings with you, _like a child_. Tom, you are necessary now to my
comfort, and perhaps my life. I am not over strong, and any great
trouble might be too much for me. I am afraid nights now, but I feel
safer when you are here. And you help me a great deal about house, and
in the care of the children. Your father is away so much I have to
depend on you. And what if, when you are away, the cabin should take
fire,--and you know our stove is none of the tightest,--or if we
should have trouble with the savages? And who would get the wood up
for us during the cold winter that is coming? God took too good care
of us, Tom, to let you forsake us that morning. Besides, Tom, you
wouldn't have succeeded."

"Why not?" asked Tom, faintly.

"You hadn't decent clothes to go in, nor any recommendations. Your
life had been very different from that you proposed to enter upon, and
you hadn't a cent of money to help you on your way. The chances were,
that you would have suffered, and, instead of helping us, as you do
now, you would have been a source of sorrow, anxiety, and expense to
us. Is it not so?" Tom saw that his mother understood the case; but
his heart sank as his air-castle fell, and he wept anew. "But do not
misunderstand me, Tom, as you did God's dealings with you. What I say
brings to you a great disappointment. It seems almost cruel in me thus
to cut off your hopes of being something better in the world. Tom, it
does not follow, because you were going too soon, and God permitted an
accident to stop you, that the time may never come for you to realize
your hopes so far as they are right. You say you wish to be useful.
You _are_ useful now, very useful. Be contented to help at home for
the present, and God will, I doubt not, open something better for you
in his own good time." And, kissing him, she lay down upon her bed for
a short nap before the day should break.




CHAPTER IV.

A BRUSH WITH INDIANS.--A BLACK HEART.


"Hello! Let me in, I say. Are you all dead?" and a strong hand shook
the door.

Mrs. Jones rubbed her eyes, for she had overslept herself; and as the
children depended on her to awaken them in the morning, they were
sleeping too. Hastening to the door, she undid the fastening, and her
husband entered.

"Is that you, Joseph?" she asked.

"It isn't anybody else, I reckon," he gruffly answered; "but where
shall I put this?" taking a quarter of venison from his shoulder,
which his wife hung against the wall on a wooden peg.

"I'm glad you've got back, Joseph."

"Well you might be, for you came near never seeing me again."

"I hope you haven't met with any mishap," said the wife, anxiously.

"Nothing to speak of, only a scratch from the bullet of one of them
rascally red-skins."

"Why, you haven't been fighting with the Indians--have you?"

"Not exactly," he answered; "I've always treated them well; but after
this, if any of 'em get in my way, I shall pop at 'em before they do
at me; that's all."

"But how did they happen to shoot at you?" asked Mrs. Jones.

"Well," said her husband, "just give me something to put on my side,
for it's a grain sore after my long tramp, and cook us a venison
steak, and I'll tell you all about it;" and Mr. Jones, pulling open
his hunting-shirt, showed an ugly-looking flesh wound in his side.

"Dear me, Joseph, you _are_ hurt," said the wife, as she carefully
bandaged it, putting on a simple salve, which she always kept on hand
for family use. "You look tired and pale--bringing home such a load,
and bleeding all the way. Sit down, and I'll get you something to eat
directly."

Scarcely had he seated himself, when there was a cry of pain from Tom,
and Bub came tumbling head first upon the floor; for, having seen his
father, he had scrambled, without ceremony, across Tom's sore face,
and receiving a push from the latter, landed upon his nose.

By this time the rest of the children were awake, and shouting, "Dad's
come home!" while Bub bellowed at the top of his lungs, "My nose
beeds! my nose beeds!"

"O, no, it don't," replied his mother, soothingly.

"Well, it feels _wed_, it does!" he answered, determined to be
pitied.

This remark elicited peals of laughter from his brothers and sisters,
which Bub taking as insults, he roared the louder.

"Children," cried Mrs. Jones, "stop laughing at Bub."

But he cut too comical a figure for them to stop at once, for, as he
had used, the night before, one of Tom's old shirts for a night dress,
he now found it difficult to move towards his father, as each time he
stepped the garment would trip his feet.

"Children," interposed Mr. Jones, "why don't you hush. Your marm's
spoken to you a number of times already."

At which Bub added with dignity, as he tried to balance himself,--

"I des they're _blind_, they're so hard o' hearin'!"

"Your father," said the mother, impressively, "has been shot at by the
Indians, and came very near being killed, and you ought to keep more
quiet."

"Did they kill you, daddy?" asked Bub, who now stood at his father's
knee, his blue eyes wide with wonder; "tause, if they did, I'll stick
my big stick into their backs."

There was a suppressed tittering at this, for which the children felt
half ashamed, considering the startling intelligence they had just
heard.

"Mother was afraid you'd have trouble with the Indians," observed Tom,
"and she was so much worried that she didn't sleep last night."

"Why, the Indians haven't been doing any mischief about here--have
they?" asked his father.

"No," replied Tom, "and I told mother that there wasn't any danger."

But the venison was filling the cabin with its savory smell, and Mrs.
Jones said,--

"Hurry, children, and get washed and dressed for breakfast."

And going to the basin, which was in its place on the wash-bench
outside the door, with much discussion as to who should have the first
chance, hands and faces were treated to a hasty bath.

Mr. Jones was about forty-five years of age--a short, thick-set man,
with dark hair and heavy beard. He was a man of much natural ability,
and exhibited singular contrasts in character and speech. The free and
easy carriage, and quaint language of the "Leather-stocking," sat
easily upon him; and yet, at times, he would express himself in words
well chosen, and even elegant. He hated society, and was despised by
the settlers for his lack of enterprise; and yet, when circumstances
drew him out, they were wonder-struck at the variety and accuracy of
his information. These inconsistencies made him a mystery; and he was
looked down upon, and looked up to, as his neighbors came in contact
with one of the other side of his characteristics. In all, too, that
pertained to the habits of the animals, and the appearance of the
country, no one was so well posted as he. He was built for physical
endurance, was cool and courageous in danger, but could not confine
himself to regular employment, bodily or mental.

"Isn't Tom coming to breakfast?" inquired Mr. Jones, as the rest of
the children were greedily helping themselves from the plate of meat.

So the mother related how Tom had been hurt, and then said,--

"But you haven't told us how you received your injury?"

"Well," said Mr. Jones, as he pushed away his plate, having satisfied
his appetite, "I had started for the lake, hearing that there was a
good many wild geese and other sorts of game there, and the prospect
was, that we should make a pretty big thing of it; but the afternoon
after we reached the pond, and was looking about a little, Davis and I
were crossing a prairie, and had come in sight of a grove, and says I
to him, 'You just go round on the other side of the thicket, and I'll
go in on this, and if there's any deer in there, one of us'll start
them out.' Well, I'd got within a few yards of the trees, when, the
first I knew, I heard the crack of a rifle, and a bullet came singing
through my side. Says I to myself, 'That's a red-skin's compliments!'
and making believe that I was a gorner, I pitched forward and lay
still as a door nail, in the tall grass. I hadn't lain there more 'n a
minute, when, sure enough, a red-skin popped out from behind a tree
close by, and made for me, to take my scalp. I had my revolver ready,
and when he was within a few feet of me, I just let daylight through
him; and as he fell, not knowing how many more of the scamps might be
about, I dragged myself along to the side of the lake, where I found
Davis waiting for me,--for he had seen the whole thing,--and creeping
around to the other side under the banks, we made tracks for home. Why
under the sun the feller didn't put the bullet through my heart, I
can't make out, for I never knew one of 'em to miss, when he was so
near as that, and had a fair aim."

Mrs. Jones then knew why her heart was so burdened on his account at
the very hour of his marvellous escape from death.

But their conversation was interrupted by a settler who called to ask
if they had seen anything of a stray pair of cattle.

"Ah, neighbor Allen, is that you?" said Mr. Jones, going to speak to
the caller, who sat upon his horse before the door.

"Ah, Jones, when did you git back? and what luck?" rejoined the
horseman in a hearty way.

"Got a taste of venison," replied Mr. Jones, "and had a brush with the
Injins."

"Ah, ha! the red scamps want to smell powder again--do they? Well, I'm
ready for them, for one, and I have seven boys not an inch shorter
than I am, and as good with the rifle as the best, who would like a
sight at the varmints. But if none of your folks have seen any stray
cattle about the diggins, I must be going. Fact is, I reckon they've
been driv off by some thievish villain."

"What sort of cattle were yours?" inquired Mrs. Jones.

"One was red, and the other was a brindle."

"Was the red one very large, with very wide-spreading horns?"

"That's the ticket," said the man.

"I saw such a one last night, going down that way, by our cabin."

"You did? Was Brindle follerin'?"

"No," replied she, "but some men were driving him."

"They were Indians!" cried Tom, excitedly.

But Mrs. Jones fell to scraping the tin pan she held in one hand, with
a case-knife, and drowned his words, so that they did not hear, while
she motioned to him to be silent.

The caller sat thinking a moment. His hair was silver-white, but his
face was youthful and ruddy; and his massive, well-knit frame
indicated remarkable physical strength. He was a bold and athletic
man, skilful with the rifle, and a lineal descendant of the
revolutionary hero whose name he bore, and whose fighting
characteristics were reproduced in him.

"What time was the ox driv by?" he asked.

"About twelve, I should think," said she.

"Were the men afoot?"

"Yes."

"Well, they'll have to travel fast to git away from me! And if I catch
'em--" But the remainder of the sentence was lost in the distance, for
the old man had already touched the trail of the stolen ox, and,
dismounting, examined carefully the ground, then fiercely shouting,
"Indians!" drove on at full speed.

When he had gone, Mr. Jones turned to his wife, and asked,--

"Did you _see_ the men that driv the ox?"

"Yes."

"Why on earth didn't you say so, then?"

"Husband," said Mrs. Jones, "the trouble will come soon enough; and I
was hoping Mr. Allen would never find out who took his cattle. If he
shoots one Indian, it will bring hundreds of them upon the
settlements, and we shall have dreadful times!"

"Fush!" returned the husband; "Allen is good for a dozen Indians, and
there are plenty more of us to help him. But don't you be scared; the
red-skins know us too well to risk a fight. They'll only prowl around
and steal a little beef, and shoot at a fellar unaware, from under
kiver--that's all they'll venter on--you can depend on that!" Then he
took down his rifle, cleaned and loaded it, and saying, "I guess I'll
go along a piece; perhaps Allen'll come across the varmints afore he's
aware," with a quick step he was soon hidden from view.

The news of the accident that had happened to Tom, and that Mr. Jones
had been shot at by the Indians, spread rapidly, with many
exaggerations; for the inhabitants of a new country, being mutually
dependent, feel a special personal interest in whatever befalls each
other. Besides, there are not such distinctions as obtain in the old,
settled portions of the country, and they become well acquainted with
one another's affairs. Moreover, the doctor, as he went his rounds,
gave a flaming account of the injury that his patient at the cabin had
sustained, and painted in glowing colors the magical effects of his
professional services. If he did not assert in so many words that
Tom's head was actually blown from his body, and that he replaced it
so that it was on better than before, he gave the impression that
something as extraordinary had been achieved by his medical and
surgical skill. And through the day quite a number called to satisfy
their curiosity, or show their sympathy. It proved, therefore, quite
an occasion for the Jones children, and they feasted their eyes and
ears to their hearts' content. As for the mother, weary of the
unwonted interruptions, and wishing to commune with her own heart, she
willingly bade the last visitor "good by," and, calling Robert, she
directed him to bring in some wood and make a fire, that she might fry
some cakes for tea. Robert proceeded with alacrity to do this, the
other children helping him in the task, the prospect of the cakes
being the quickening principle. Robert filled the grate with dry wood,
and, proceeding to light it, the room was soon dense with smoke. This,
however, was no new experience, as the blackened walls of the cabin
testified. But soon the smoke had measurably cleared away, and the
tea-kettle sent up volumes of steam, and Mrs. Jones, taking some meal
from her frugal stock, poured boiling water upon it, and added some
salt. Then putting on the griddle some deer fat, she put the dough in
large iron spoonfuls into the sputtering grease.

"Your father will relish these," said she to the children, who stood
in solid ranks around the stove, watching her with interest. And
having taken off the last cake, she set the heaping plate in the open
oven to keep warm till her husband came.

"I guess pa's coming now," said Sarah, who, anxious to get to eating,
had looked out to see if he was in sight. "No; it isn't he, either; I
don't know who it is. How nicely dressed he is!"

At the latter exclamation the family urchins rushed in a body through
the door, upsetting Sarah in their eagerness to see the wonder.

A gentlemanly, middled-aged man in black, with gold spectacles and
pleasant countenance, approached.

Accustomed to the plainly-attired specimens of humanity that do the
hard work of the frontier, the children, overawed by his appearance,
shrank behind cabin and pigsty, in spite of his kindly invitations to
stay, where they peeped at him in open-mouthed astonishment.

"Mrs. Jones, I presume," said he, bowing, as, abashed, she answered
his polite rap on the door-frame.

"Yes, sir," she replied, wondering how he knew her name.

Entering, without being asked,--for Mrs. Jones was too confused to
think of it,--he said,--

"I heard that your son had met with an injury, and as I was looking
up children for the Sabbath school we are to organize next Sunday, I
thought I would step in and see how he was, and how many of your
little ones could attend."

"It is the missionary," whispered Tom, as his mother nervously
smoothed the bed-clothes.

The good minister heard the remark, and not appearing to notice the
mother's embarrassment, stepped to Tom's side, and in a way that made
both mother and son feel at ease, said,--

"I hope you are not seriously hurt, my lad."

"No, sir," replied Tom, grateful for his thoughtful kindness. "My face
was burnt pretty badly by the powder; but it's nearly well now, and
the black is coming off nicely."

"How did you contrive to get hurt so, at this season of the year? Boys
sometimes get burned with powder on Independence Day. I once met with
such an accident myself."

"How did it happen?" Tom ventured to inquire, for he loved dearly to
hear a story.

"It was when I was about fourteen," replied the minister. "I was a
wide-awake little good-for-nothing, and had for some weeks saved up my
pennies to celebrate the Fourth with. I bought me a half pound of
powder, and a little iron cannon, on wheels, and, as you may believe,
anticipated a jolly time. I had decided, the night before, to commence
the day with a grand salute; and that it might produce the greatest
effect, I crept softly down in my stocking feet, by my parents'
bed-room into the front hall, before daylight, and having loaded my
little gun to the muzzle the evening before, I touched it off. It made
a great noise, I assure you--all the louder, of course, because it was
in the house; then, slipping on my shoes, I went into the streets,
leaving the old folks to go to sleep again if they could. My first use
of the powder, you see, did no harm to me, unless it made me careless.
When I got into the street, I found crowds of boys and men were there
before me, making all the noise they could, firing off crackers,
pistols, and guns, and making the foggy morning air resound with the
music of tin horns and drums. Meeting a boy with a large horse-pistol,
I bought it of him at a foolishly high price, and banged away with
that till breakfast time. At the eastern extremity of the city, where
I then lived, was a high hill, called Munjoy, on which the soldiers
were to encamp that day; and after eating a hurried meal, I went
there. Scores of white tents were pitched, occupied by men who sold
all sorts of tempting eatables, while thousands of men, women, and
children walked about. It was an exciting scene to me. The hill,
indeed, was a glorious spot, for it overlooked the city on the one
side, with its thousands of buildings and shaded streets, and on the
other the harbor, with its shipping and wharves, and lovely islands,
while the ocean stretched away as far as the eye could reach."

"I never saw the ocean," interrupted Tom.

"Well, I will tell you what it resembles. You have looked for miles
and miles over the prairie--I mean a _rolling_ prairie, that in gentle
swells of land extends till the sky shuts down upon it?"

"O, yes," answered Tom.

"Well, imagine that prairie turned to water, so deep that you could
not touch bottom with the longest line you ever saw,--the ocean would
look so; only remember that it is always in motion--ebbing, and
flowing, and roaring, and dashing against the land and the rocks, its
waves sometimes running very high, topped off with a white foam."

"O," said Tom, earnestly, "if I could only once see it!"

The minister studied Tom's expressive face a moment, and then said,--

"Perhaps you may, some day. But I was going to tell you how I got
hurt. I had exploded all the powder, and was about tired of the
pistol,--for you know such things don't satisfy a great while, after
all,--when I came across some boys who were making volcanoes.
Volcanoes, you know, are burning mountains. They took some powder, wet
it, worked it with their fingers into miniature hills, then put one
end of a strip of match-paper in the top of each, and lighted the
other end of the paper; this would burn slowly down into the top of
the powder-hill; that would take fire and send up showers of sparks
for quite a while, as it gradually consumed. This amusement fascinated
me. So, buying a quarter of a pound of powder, I made a hill like
those I had seen, and lighted the match-paper as I saw them light
theirs; but when it had burnt all away, the hill did not burn.
Thinking, therefore, I had put too much water in mine, I stooped down
and poured on from the paper some dry powder. In an instant it ignited
from a smouldering spark, exploding also the contents of the paper
which I held in my hand. My face was dreadfully burned, and became as
black as a negro's."

"So did mine," said Tom; "but it is coming off nicely now."

"So I see," returned the minister, laughing; "and I dare say you
worried almost as much about the _black_ as you did about the
_burn_."

"Tom feared it would never come off," said the mother.

"Ah, that's just the way I felt. But I have found out since that
there's something worse than a black face."

"What's that?" asked Tom.

"A black heart!" replied the minister.

"A black heart!" repeated Tom, in doubt of his meaning.

"Yes, my lad. What I mean is a heart blackened by sin. Ah, if folks
worried more about _that_, and less about their looks, how much more
sensible it would be!" Then, after a pause, he said,--

"But there is one thing for which we should be very grateful; and that
is, that as there are remedies for us when we injure the body, and
disfigure it,--as we did our faces, my son,--that can heal the injury,
and bring the skin out all fresh and fair, so there is a great
Physician, who can heal the hurt which sin has done our souls, and
cause them to be pure and white forever. Isn't that a glorious
thought?"

"Yes," whispered Tom, weeping.

"Yes," ejaculated the mother, with deep emotion.

"But," said the minister, "how many of these little folks"--for most
of the children had ventured in, and stood listening spell-bound to
his recital--"will come to Sunday school next Sunday?" And getting a
promise that as many of them would be there as possible, he took
leave, saying he hoped to call again soon.

The children's hearts were taken captive by their clerical visitor.
And well it might be so, for he was their true friend. And it
mattered little to him that their dwelling was rude and comfortless,
their clothing old and worn, and their manners uncultured. He loved
them for his Master's sake, and for their souls' sake: for this he had
left the elegances of his eastern home, and come out into the
wilderness. He was a true man, and a true minister of Jesus
Christ--seeking not a name, wealth, luxury, the favor of the rich and
great, but to bring the straying lambs and sheep into the fold.

"I think we won't wait any longer for your father," said Mrs. Jones,
after the children had got somewhat over the excitement caused by the
missionary's call; and putting her hand into the oven to take from
thence the plate of cakes, she looked in to see why she did not find
them, exclaiming,--

"Why, where are the cakes? I certainly set them in here. Who has taken
them away?"

The children gazed at each other in consternation.

"I'll bet it's some of Bub's doings," said Eliza; and noticing for the
first time that he was not in the room, they hastened out to find
him.

"Bub, Bub!" called the mother.

"Bub, Bub!" echoed the children, as they searched the field over, and
looked into every nook and corner that they could think of. But there
was no answer, and not a trace of him was to be found, until, at last,
Charley called out,--

"Here's his stick!"

"He cannot be far off, then," said his mother, although she began to
grow uneasy about him.

"No," said Robert, "for he rides that stick most all the time:" then
he suddenly added, "Ah, you little rascal! I see you!" Then turning to
the rest, he whispered, "Just look here, but don't make any noise!"

And Mrs. Jones and the children, gathering softly around the pen,
peeping in, saw Bub, comfortably seated by the fawn, the cakes in his
lap, eating them and feeding the gentle creature. Bub had teased the
fawn the most, and Bub was the first to tame it.

[Illustration: BUB AND THE FAWN. Page 64.]




CHAPTER V.

BROTHER SMITH AND QUARTER STAKES.


"Good morning, Mr. Jones. I suppose we may call this Indian
summer--may we not?" and the missionary--for it was he--shook hands
with the hunter.

"Scarcely time for it yet," replied the latter. "But this is fine
weather, though."

"Shall you be busy to-day? I wish to find a good quarter section of
land on which to put up a house. I have been thinking that as I have
never pre-empted, and have therefore a right to do so, I may as well
do it."

The hunter laughed scornfully, and said,--

"Good many folks about here pre-empt more than once."

"But that is illegal," replied the minister.

"They don't stand about that."

"But they are obliged to take oath at the Land Office that they have
never availed themselves of the privilege."

"And they take it."

"But they perjure themselves in doing so."

"Yes."

"Well," said the clergyman, with a sigh, "I can't understand how a
person can break the laws and take a false oath for the sake of a
little land."

"Nor can I," replied the hunter, almost fiercely; "and I makes no
pretensions to _piety_, either. I pre-empted once, and afterwards sold
out; and I hev moved about considerable sence; but I have never
cheated government out of a cent yet--nor anybody, as to that. I don't
own nothing here; this is government land that my cabin sets on, and
if it was put up for sale to-day, by the proper authorities, I
couldn't say a word if it was sold, improvements and all. I have to
take my risk, and I'm contented to, rather than own the biggest farm
out doors, and get it by lying under oath. No; they calls Joseph Jones
a worthless dog, and _I_ don't say he isn't; but let me tell you,
neighbor, that I haven't it on my conscience that I went into the Land
Office and lifted up my right hand, solumly promising to speak the
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and then, when I
knows that I have pre-empted once, or maybe a number of times, swear
that I never hev--as some of your praying, psalm-singing folks has!"

"Do I understand you to say, Mr. Jones, that professing Christians
living about here have done this?"

"That's _just_ what I say," replied the hunter; "and I have as much
respect for sich whining hypercrites as I have for a hissing adder:
that's why I never took much to meetin's, I suppose. What I gits, I
gits honest--don't I, pet?" and he caressed his rifle as if it were a
living thing, and understood what he said. "I brings home what the
good Lord sends inter the woods an' over the prairies fur me. 'The
cattle upon a thousand hills are his'--that's Scripter, I believe; and
it means, I take it, that the deer, and the elk, and the bear, and the
geese and the hens, belong to _him_: nobody ken say, '_I_ owns them
all,' and keep them for his own use; and when Billy, here,"--patting
his gun,--"brings down a fat buck, we feel _honest_ about it--don't
we, Bill? 'Tisn't like standing behind the counter with a smerk on yer
face, as yer cheat in weight an' measure, or sell sanded sugar for the
genuine. Many an' many's the time I've known this done, by them that
lives in fine houses, and wears fine clothes, an' goes reg'lar to
church; an' if they passed Joseph Jones, wouldn't deign to speak to
the old hunter. Not that I care about that; I don't deign to speak to
them; and if heaven is for _them_, I had just as lieves stay a while
outside, for they an' I could never git along together here, and we
couldn't be expected to there. But did you want anything perticular of
me?"

"I was told," said the missionary, "that none of the settlers
understood so well about the land, and where to find the section and
quarter section stakes as you; and I thought, if it wouldn't be taking
too much of your time, that perhaps you would show me around a
little."

"Nothin' would suit my feelings better," said the hunter. "Was there
any perticular direction you wish to go to?"

"Brother Smith tells me that here is a fine quarter section still
unclaimed;" and the clergyman took from his note-book a
roughly-sketched map of the vicinity, purporting to show what
was taken up and what was not.

"Did he give you _that_?" asked the hunter, as he ran his eye over the
paper.

"Yes; as looking up land is new to me, I was thankful to get some sort
of a guide," replied the missionary.

"I don't see much to be thankful for on that drawin'."

"Why, isn't that quarter section free?" inquired the minister,
perplexed.

"Yes; an' we'll go an' see it. But are yer goin' afoot?"

The missionary replied affirmatively.

"You'll never stand it in the world, to hunt up land in that way--too
much ground to go over. Wife," he added, putting his head in at the
door, "you jist entertain the minister, while I see if I ken scare up
a team fur him."

Mr. Jones strode off as if he had a congenial errand to do, and
striking a "bee line" across the prairie, over a river, through a
grove, halted before a cosy cottage that would remind one of New
England. The acres and acres of tilled land stretched away from the
dwelling, enclosed in the most substantial manner, and sleek cattle,
that fed in the rich pasture, bespoke competency and enterprise. He
stopped not to knock at the door, but entering, asked of a lady who
sat sewing'--

"Is yer husband about, Mrs. Lincoln?"

"Yes; he's in the other room. I'll speak to him."

And in a moment the robust form of the owner of the farm appeared.

"How are you, Jones?" he said, in an offhand way.

"O, I'm nicely. I called on an errand fur yer minister, that you've
invited to settle among us. He wants a spot for a cabin,--like the
rest of us, I suppose,--and Smith has told him to look at the quarter
section way over there, a mile and a half beyond Clark's; you know the
place. I jist want to git your team and take him over in a good,
Christian way, and not let him travel his legs off, so that he can't
preach to us sinners next Sunday."

Mr. Lincoln had been foremost in urging the missionary to cast in his
lot with them, and no one had made more promises of material aid than
he. He was sincere in this, and was really a generous man, but
exceedingly careless. He had been told that the minister was going to
look up a claim; but it had never occurred to him, until now, that the
preacher had no other conveyance than his feet, and that to walk over
the prairies would be a toilsome and time-consuming task. Slapping his
caller on the shoulder, he said,--

"Glad to see you interested, Jones; and to encourage you, I'll harness
right up, and you may take the span."

The nimble-footed steeds were soon in the buggy; and the hunter,
having taken the preacher aboard, was, in good time, pointing out to
him the boundaries of the claim. It was a lovely spot,--like many such
in Prairiedom,--and the hunter took care that it should be seen to
advantage. On a gentle swell of ground was a small gem of a grove,
commanding a view of the rest of the section. The fall flowers,
many-hued and bright-eyed, nodded gayly in the tall grass; a natural
spring, bursting from the hillock, wound its way along till lost in
the distance; the sun was pouring down its rays from a sky
fleecy-clouded and soft. How could the preacher, with his pure tastes
and cultivated love of the beautiful, help being delighted with the
scene?

"This is delightful!" he exclaimed. "I'll build my cottage right here
by the side of this spring, and my tilled land will always be in
view."

The hunter had anticipated his decision, and dryly observed,--

"It wouldn't be no sich place as yer ought to hev."

"Why not?" asked the minister, smiling.

"Do you reckon on keeping a horse?" asked the other.

"No; I couldn't afford that."

"How, then, are you goin' to git to yer appintments, an' to visit the
sick an' the dyin', from this pint? And you'll never farm it much; the
land looks nice and slick as a gentleman's lawn: this is one of the
Lord's lawns, neighbor; but 'twasn't made for you to live on. Don't
you expect to hev no evenin' meetin's? You can't hev them out here
where there's no live critter but the prairie hins, and maybe in the
winter a stray wolf or two. You're a _perfessional_ man, and it's
necessary for you to be right among folks, and not livin' off one
side, like as if you wanted to keep out the way of company."

This rugged, common-sense way of putting things was quite effective,
and the missionary said,--

"You are right. But what can I do? By this chart I find that there is
little vacant land about here, and I am unable to purchase an improved
farm at the prices at which they are held."

"You don't mean to settle down on _this_--do ye?"

"That is out of the question."

"Well, Joseph Jones isn't of much account, but if he don't show you a
bit of land that's been left for jist sich as you, then I lie like
that lying chart," he said, angrily. And motioning the preacher to
resume his seat in the buggy, the hunter drove back for some distance
in the direction from which they had come, then, striking a well-worn
cart-path to the right, suddenly emerged from a piece of woods near a
river, on the farther bank of which was a saw-mill, and in the stream
were men at work strengthening a dam.

"There," said the hunter, "is the centre of things, so fur as this
vicinity is concerned. That's the store,"--as he pointed across the
river to a small building,--"and a hotel is going up just opposite;
and the land sharks and speculators that's going to settle here will
want jist sich as you right among 'em, to stir up their consciences,
and jog their pure minds by way of remembrance,--as the Book
says,--an' not way off there!" pointing contemptuously over his
shoulder.

"But brother Smith informs me that all the land near to the town is
taken up," said the missionary.

"_Brother_ Smith--who's he? I know _Charles_ Smith; and if you kin
fellowship him, I can't. An' when you come to sift folks down,--as I
foresee sich as you will,--you won't brother him much, unless he
repints--an' I don't say he won't. Now let me introduce you to your
future home, ef you settles in these parts. There, _this_ is the town,
where we now are;" and he placed the tip of his little finger on the
place as represented on the map. "Now coming down square on to the
town-site is this eighty-acre lot; lays beautiful to the town, the
main street running right up to it. And through that street,"
continued he, impressively, "must go all the travel to the important
places beyond. And by and by, when the immigration gets strong enough,
the owner of that piece of land will hev corner lots and sich to sell.
Let me show jist how it lays;" and crossing the bridge, and passing up
the projected street, he stopped the horses on a gentle rise of
ground, forming the nearest point in the eighty acres. "There," he
continued, referring to the map again, "you see the eighty-acre lot
runs lengthwise from the town. Across it runs a tributary of the
river--just down there where you see the plum and bass-wood trees;
and beyond that are ten acres of the richest and easiest-worked river
bottom that the sun ever shone on--all fenced; then follers thirty
acres of young and valuable timber land. Here's your building spot
right here where we stand, in sight of everybody, and all the travel,
handy to the store, and saw-mill, and post-office, and sich, and handy
to meetin'; and the ten acres of alluvial, rich as the richest, and
finely pulverized as powder,--you ken plough it or hoe it jist as easy
as you ken turn your hand over,--will give you all the sarce you want,
and something to sell. And there's wood enough down over the place to
keep yer fires a going; and when you want to pre-empt, jist sell some
of yer standing timber there, to help pay for the whole, at government
price."

"But," replied the missionary, as the squatter finished his graphic
description, "I see by this chart that this is taken up;" for he had
meanwhile been examining it.

"Well," said the hunter, "whose name's writ down as the owner of this
land?"

"Henry Simonds," said the minister, reading from the paper.

"And do you know who 'Henry Simonds' may be?" asked the hunter. "It's
a young chap jist turned nineteen, and of course not old 'nough to
pre-empt, according to law, and who hasn't lived on this claim a day
in his life. There isn't a sign of a shanty on the place, and the law
requires that every man must show _something_ of a house to prove that
he is an actual settler. That name's a blind. This land jines Smith's,
and he's been carrying on the ten-acre lot over the river, rent free;
and it comes very handy for him to come in on this piece and get his
saw-logs. It's government property; and all you have to do is, to put
you up a cabin, and go ahead, and if Smith kicks up a fuss, jist send
him to me."

This revelation of duplicity on the part of Mr. Smith took the
minister by surprise. It was evident that the location would be as
advantageous for him as his plain-spoken guide had represented. It was
defrauding the government for Smith to hold it as he did; and should
he, in a legal way, take possession, no one could accuse him of wrong.
But he had not come out on the frontier to promote his worldly
interests; and he said to the hunter,--

"What you say is all right, I have no doubt, Mr. Jones; but it is not
land that I want so much as to do good among this people; and I should
not wish to do anything that would cause ill feeling."

"Just as I expected," said the squatter, with a disappointed air; "and
I rather think you belong to the kingdom that is not of this world.
But you are stopping at Edmunds's--aren't you? Well, it's only a short
piece to his cabin, and I must take the team back; but"--after
thinking a moment--"if you'll take the dam on your way, you'll find
Palmer there. He's a Christian, if there is one in these parts; and
you can depend on him; and if you choose to talk with him a bit about
this eighty-acre lot, there won't be any harm done."

The minister thanked the squatter for his services, the latter saying,
as he drove off,--

"Call on me agin, if you want anything in my line."

As the missionary passed towards the dam, he saw the surveyors at
work, dividing the town site into lots; and he paused to notice again
the location. The underbrush had been carefully removed, and the
cleared space--bounded on one hand by the river, and on the other by
the forest, while farther away from each side stretched the smooth
prairie--looked as if nature had intended it as a business centre.

"How do you like our town plot?" said a voice at his side.

"It is charming!" exclaimed the preacher; and, turning, he saw Mr.
Palmer.

He was a medium-sized man, in shirt sleeves and blue overalls, with an
old black silk hat on, which, from its bent appearance, gave one the
idea that it had on occasions been used for a seat as well as a
covering. The keen blue eyes under it, and the general contour of the
face, ending in a smoothly-shaven chin, revealed a hard-working,
frugal, money-saving character, yet honest, sincere, and unselfish. He
was, indeed,--what he struck the observer as being,--a prudent
counsellor, a true friend, a wisely-generous helper in every good word
and work. No man in the settlement was more respected than he--a
respect not based on his personal appearance, it was clear; for he had
a perfect contempt for the ostentations of dress and equipage, but due
to his straightforward and consistent deportment. He was about forty,
and unmarried, and, on account of his amiable, thrifty, and
Christianly qualities, was said to be the victim of incessant
"cap-setting" by managing mammas and marriageable daughters, and of no
little raillery on the part of the men, which he bore with great good
nature, safely escaping from each matrimonial snare, and returning
joke for joke.

"Been looking up land?" asked the bachelor.

The missionary related the day's doings, and what the squatter had
said about Mr. Smith and the eighty acres.

"Jones has stated the facts in the case," said Mr. Palmer, "and
advised well; but it won't do for you to have any falling out with
Smith. If you will leave the matter with me, I guess I can manage it
so that you shall have the eighty acres, and there be no bad feelings.
We had better pay Smith something than to have a quarrel."

"But is Smith a member of a church?" asked the missionary.

"We don't know who is who, yet," answered the other; "but should we
ever form a church here, of course he'll have to show a certificate of
membership in order to join; and I rather think he'll never be able to
do that. Do him all the good you can, but don't trust him overmuch."




CHAPTER VI.

MRS. JONES'S STORY.--THE GRAY WOLF.


"Was it so _very_ different east, mother," asked Tom, one day, "where
you came from, from what it is here?"

"Different in what respects?" she inquired.

"O," he answered, hesitatingly, "I mean, were folks as poor and
ignorant as--as--"

"As we are, you were going to say," said she, placidly, finishing his
sentence for him.

"I don't think that you and father are _ignorant_," he replied,
looking confused; "but--"

"I understand what you mean, Tom. No; where your father and I were
born, and where we were married, the country was thickly settled. All
the children went to school, and there were no such cabins as the one
we live in, but nice, framed houses of wood, stone, or brick."

"Were there no poor people there?"

"Yes, as many as there are here,--a great many in the large
cities,--and they found it very hard getting along."

"Were yours and father's folks very poor?"

"No; they were in comfortable circumstances."

"Then why, mother, did you come west, and why do we live as we do
now?"

As she did not at once reply, the lad, busy once more with his own
thoughts, forgot that he had asked the question. He had often revolved
the matter in his own mind, but had never before ventured to speak of
it. His mother's conversation with him, after his injury by the gun,
had shown him the folly of his plan of leaving home clandestinely; but
dissatisfaction with his lot grew with his growth and strengthened
with his strength. It was a great mystery to him how his mother could
consent to live so, for so many years. He would look at the black and
crazy loggery, with its clay "chinking," that was ever more cracking,
and crumbling, and falling to the floor, leaving holes between the
logs, through which the wind and rain entered; and the one rickety
chair, and the rude benches and boxes for sitting accommodations, and
the bedsteads, composed of rough oaken slabs, spiked at the head and
side to the walls, and a rough post at the unsupported corner, and the
cracked and rusted stove and leaky funnel; and then he would look at
his mother, who, despite her coarse and dingy dress, seemed so
superior to her condition; and the more he realized the contrast, the
more he marvelled. When he was younger, he had noticed this
incongruity between his gentle mother and her wretched surroundings;
and now he sometimes wished he could be insensible to it, it made him
so unhappy. How restless he became--how like a caged eaglet, as he
pondered the subject by night and by day--none knew save the watchful
friend who moved so gently about the dark-lighted cabin, and kept so
uncomplainingly at her tasks.

And his father seemed to him, in his way, as much of a mystery as his
mother. Was he contented with the roving life he led? and did he never
realize the deprivations of his wife and children? Did father and
mother ever know brighter days? and were they never to see them again?
And was it duty for him to keep on in the same way, sacrificing every
rising aspiration and pure taste, and getting nothing in return but
poor food and clothing, a comfortless home, and a mind undeveloped and
unfurnished?

Seated on the end of a box, shelling corn by drawing the ears against
the back of a broken scythe, he had been working and thinking through
the evening, while the children slept, with no one to notice his
absent-minded labor but his ever-wakeful mother.

"I will not endure it," he mentally exclaimed; and, by way of
emphasis, he drew the ear of corn he held against the edge of the
scythe with unusual force, at the same instant springing to his feet
with a cry of pain, and a finger in his mouth, upsetting his seat, and
sending the contents of the box rolling across the floor, and into the
gaping cracks.

"O, I've scraped my finger awfully!" he said, with grimaces that added
nothing to his personal attractions.

"Why, how did you do it, my son?" asked the mother, although she knew
very well.

"Why, you see, I was thinking about something, and pulled my finger,
instead of the cob, against the edge."

Mrs. Jones laid back the strip of bleeding flesh into the place from
which it had thus unceremoniously been torn, and from which it hung by
a bit of skin, and carefully bound up the wound.

Then, sweeping the scattered kernels into a heap, and restoring them
to the box, she seated herself in a little dislocated chair, and
said,--

"There, don't shell any more now, Tom; I have something to say to you.
You asked why we came west. The time has come when you had better know
something of our history; it may help you decide your course of
action.

"Your father and I were born in Connecticut, in the same town. We
attended school together in our early childhood, and often played
together. Both of our families were respectable--your father's quite
so, although not so well off as to property as mine. He was a bright,
promising boy, quick to learn, warm-hearted, and conscientious. I
never knew him guilty of any of the petty meannesses too common among
school children. He was sensitive to a fault, but had high notions of
honor, and despised falsehood and deception in any form. When I was
seventeen I became secretly engaged to him. My parents did not suspect
this, nor did any of the household, except a younger sister, to whom I
confided my secret. I now think it would have been better for all
concerned had I from the first been open in the matter, and frankly
stated to my mother what my preference was. But I knew that he was not
their choice for me. They were ambitious to have me marry brilliantly,
as the phrase went,--that is, wealthily and in style,--and he was
young, and had his fortune to carve out pretty much for himself. He
knew what their hopes were concerning me, matrimonially, and, that I
might be perfectly free to break the engagement, should I repent of
it, rarely saw me, nor did any correspondence pass between us. My
regard for him did not lessen on this account, for I understood his
motives. When he was of age, his father died, leaving him a thousand
dollars as his portion. With this he went into business, with good
prospects, in a neighboring city. I shall never forget how earnestly
he spoke, one evening, as we parted after a brief interview.

"'Mary,' said he, 'I will be rich. I've set my mind on that; and then
your father won't be ashamed to own me as a son-in-law, and I shall
come and claim you.'

"It seemed noble and heroic for him to speak thus; but my heart smote
me with foreboding, and I answered,--

"'But what if you do not succeed?'

"'I _will_ succeed;' he replied, impetuously. 'What a man _wills_ he
can do.'

"Ah, how foolish and sinful it is to worship money and show, as my
parents did; how much suffering it has caused me! and how equally
unwise and presumptuous it was for a young man, stung by the pride of
others, to make that the rule of his life, and go forth in his own
strength to build up a fortune, so that he might _demand_ me of my
parents as an equal, and thus gratify his own pride! I see it now, but
not clearly then.

"Joseph, for a time, was prosperous. Everything he turned his hand to
was remunerative; and when we met, his manner was confident and
hopeful.

"'Let the old gentleman look down upon me now if he chooses,' he would
say; 'he won't always do it.'

"He had been a year in business when a partnership was proposed to him
by a man of education and gentlemanly appearance. Joseph spoke to me
about it, and I said,--

"'You are doing well enough now. Why not be contented to go alone? I
have often heard that partnerships are poor ships to sail in.'

"'Well,' said he, 'there's something in his appearance that I do not
quite like, and I think I shall not take him in.'

"But as the man came with the highest testimonials as to his
character, ability, and influence, with the hope of greatly enlarging
his business, a copartnership was entered into. Mr. Jacques, the
partner, was Joseph's senior in age--a stout, robust man, with a high
forehead, light hair, always carried a cane, was jovial, and
good-natured in the extreme, fond of telling a good story, but sharp
in trade. I met him on one occasion, and there was something in the
turn of his eye--a restless, jerking, selfish expression--that made me
shrink from him. Joseph was proud of his acquisition, and, remembering
my caution, asked me what I thought of him. I well remember the reply
that leaped to my lips.

"'Didn't you say that he was religious?'

"'He professes to be,' said he.

"'I fear that it is only a cloak to his real character. If he is a
Christian, I do not know what grace has done for him; but if I do not
misread his face, he is constitutionally dishonest.'

"But every thing went on smoothly, and Joseph would say to me when we
met,--

"'My partner loves scandal a little too well--is apt to talk against
others; but one thing I'm sure of--he's honest.'

"One morning, some months after this conversation, I chanced to meet
Joseph as he was going to the office; he looked pale and careworn.

"'O,' said he, 'I have had the most singular exercise of mind. Some
folks are troubled with sleeplessness; but I never was until last
night. I went to bed feeling as well as usual, but could not sleep. I
was not unusually tired, had taken a light supper, and saw no reason
why I should be so wakeful. I turned and tossed in bed, and shut my
eyes; but all in vain. I even laid my finger on my wrist, that the
counting of my pulse might, by the monotony, induce slumber; when,
suddenly, before my mind's eye stood my partner; it seemed as real as
life; and with the appearance came little remarks of his, little acts
and words, which, as they ranged themselves along like the links in a
chain, revealed him to me, against my will, as a deceiver and a
dishonest man.'

"He was much excited, and hurried to town. Mr. Jacques, as I
afterwards learned, was there before him, and met him with his bland
smile and well-turned compliments; and, strange as it may seem,
scarcely an hour had passed before he had charmed away every shadow of
suspicion. Matters now went on as before for a few weeks, when Joseph
had another sleepless night, and a more convincing unfolding of his
partner's real character; and the next night, after the office had
been closed, he spent in examining the books of the concern, and
detected a number of artfully-contrived fraudulent entries in the
handwriting of his partner, for, according to agreement, the latter
kept the accounts. Further revelations showed that he had been
gradually abstracting the stock. As soon as Mr. Jacques saw that he
was being found out, his gentleness and politeness were all gone, and
he raged like a beast of prey. Joseph attached his furniture at his
dwelling, but found it had all been made over to his son--a young
lawyer in the city; meanwhile the dishonest man had fled with his
ill-gotten gains, leaving the business in a frightfully complicated
state. The result was, as is often the case when a man begins to go
down in his affairs, although he may be ever so deserving and
innocent, there are enough to give him a push. It was so with him. In
vain did Joseph, by his books, show that he was doing well up to the
cruel embezzlements, and that if he was dealt leniently with, he could
recover his standing, and go on as prosperously as before; his
creditors, one after another, ferociously pounced upon him; he got
through one trouble only to meet another, until utter failure came.
The effect on Joseph was lamentable in the extreme. He sat by his fire
at home, day after day, for weeks, with his head buried in his hands,
in utter despair. Had some kind friend stepped forward and started him
anew, what a deed of mercy it would have been! But the men whom he
accommodated with money, when prosperous, turned their backs upon him
now.

"Recovering somewhat from the shock, he sought again and again for
employment; but his short-sighted and relentless creditors would
factorize his earnings, and thus oblige him to leave."

"Factorize!" asked Tom, interrupting her; "what is that?"

"Why," said the mother, "if a man owes another, the creditor attaches
his wages, and when the man presents his bill to his employer, he
finds that he cannot pay him anything. In vain he went to distant
places to earn a subsistence. Shrewd lawyers were put upon his track;
he was ferretted out, until, discouraged, he came to me one day, and
said,--

"'Mary, the hounds are after me from morning till night. They dog my
steps wherever I go, and give me no chance to retrieve my fortunes. I
am going to the west; and it isn't right to hold you to your
engagement any longer, for I can never, on my part, fulfil it. The
odds are against me here, and, what is worse, I've lost my courage and
hope; I have come to bid you good by.'

"'If you do not care for me any longer,' I said, 'say so. You've
struggled hard, and have merited a better result; it isn't your fault
that you have failed. God forbid that I should break my promise. If
you must go west, you are not going alone. I shall go with you, and
shall this very night tell my parents all about my engagement, and get
their consent to our marriage.'

"He shook his head. But feeling that it had been cowardly in me not to
have mentioned the subject before, whatever the result might have
been, in a few words I frankly, and with a composure that surprised
myself, told them the whole story. My father was a quick-tempered,
imperious man, and my mother lived only for this world: the result
you can easily imagine. But I felt that my duty was plain; and we were
quietly married. Having a little money of my own, joining it with what
your father had by him, we started towards the setting sun. But what
was that?" said Mrs. Jones, stopping in her recital, as a strange
sound fell upon her ear.

It was a long, fiendish yell, swelling upon the still night air over
the unbroken solitudes of the prairie; it was most appalling. Tom and
his mother hastened to the window; they saw a noble buck, his antlers
held aloft, flying with his utmost speed, pursued by two dark-looking
objects, that gained rapidly on him.

"It's the gray wolf," said Tom, "chasing a deer. How I wish I had a
rifle! I could bring one of them down easy as not,"--as they dashed
by, with short, quick yells, following their prey into the woods that
skirted the river.

"I hope the poor creature will escape," said Mrs. Jones, with a sigh;
and she resumed her narrative. "I was not long in seeing, on our
journey out, that a dreadful change had been wrought in your father by
his business troubles. It had given him an unconquerable disgust of
society, which he has not yet outgrown, making him uneasy and restless
wherever he has been; and this, Tom, is the secret of his wandering
life; and this is why I never feel that I can complain at any of the
changes in our hard, unsettled career as a family."

Tom, who had listened absorbed to this before unread chapter in the
family history, was deeply moved, and, while the tears filled his
eyes, asked, in tremulous tones,--

"Do you think father'll ever get over it, mother?"

"Tom," replied she, "your father has a true heart and a good mind, and
I believe that, in some way, good will yet come out of this
long-continued trial. He's taken a great liking to the missionary; and
Mr. Payson seems to understand him better than most, and I am praying
that the acquaintance may lead to something brighter for him; and,
Tom," she added, "I have told you this that you may see a new reason
for not being in haste to leave your father and mother. There is one
passage in the Bible I often think of, which directs us to both hope
and quietly wait for the salvation of God. Your father's mistake, when
he went into business, was, that he was in too great haste to
accomplish his own will. This is apt to be the error of the young.
They are sanguine of success, and they rush into the battle of life
without waiting to put on the armor of faith. What the young want in
setting out, Tom, is a Guide and a Helper, who cannot err, and will
not forsake them. An old man in our town used to say, 'Never try to
kick open the door of Providence.' I want you, Tom, to wait patiently
till Providence opens the door for you. Then you need not be afraid to
go forward."




CHAPTER VII.

A SABBATH ON THE PRAIRIE.


_Extracts from the Missionary's Diary._

Yesterday I preached my first sermon in a log cabin. When I awoke in
the early morning, and looked out of the little window at the head of
my bed in the rough, low-roofed attic, a new world seemed to break on
my sight. Instead of the narrow, noisy streets and tenanted blocks of
the populous eastern city, my eyes rested on one vast green field
stretching to the arching horizon, over which brooded a profound
silence, intensified by the sacred hush of the Sabbath.

My host offered his own cabin for the forenoon service. His son--a
sturdy young man of eighteen, inured to pioneer life--had ridden far
and wide to give notice of the meeting, and he was confident of a good
attendance. I anticipated the labors of the day with some misgivings,
for I had become slavishly accustomed to the use of written sermons;
but here, before a log-cabin audience, to speak from manuscript was
not to be thought of. For once, at least, I must trust to the grace of
Christ, and speak as the Spirit gave utterance. My study was a corner
of the loft, my library a pocket Bible.

"Where do all these people come from?" I ejaculated in pleased
surprise, as, for a full hour before the time appointed, men, women,
and children, afoot, in wagons and ox-teams, continued to arrive. And
through the cracks in the loosely-laid, unnailed floor, I could see
members of the family engaged in contriving sitting accommodations for
the growing congregation. Unplaned oaken boards, placed across trunks,
boxes, and huge blocks, soon filled the room, every seat being
occupied, while groups of men stood about the door outside, or sat
upon the embankment. I would have a "full house" certainly. And what
effort had been made by these frontier folk to attend I could easily
imagine. Some had walked many miles for the purpose; most had come
quite a distance. And the earnest, thoughtful faces that met my gaze,
as I descended the ladder, and read the opening hymn,--how reverently
their heads were bowed for prayer, and with what hushed interest they
listened to the discourse,--I can not soon forget. One woman, who sat
surrounded by her family, wept from the announcement of the text till
the close of the sermon--wept for joy that, once more, after long
deprivation of sanctuary privileges, she could hear the word of God.
It was a scene for a painter--that log cabin crowded with
representatives of every state in the Union, in every variety of garb,
and of all ages, from the gray-haired backwoodsman to the babe in its
mother's arms. No costly organ was here, with its gentle, quiet
breathings, or grand and massive harmonies; no trained choir; no
consecrated temple, with its Sabbath bell, and spire pointing
heavenward; no carpeted aisles and "dim religious light," and
sculptured, cushioned pulpit. But I could not doubt the presence of
the Spirit. And when, at the close, "Praise God, from whom all
blessings flow," was sung to Old Hundred,--sung as if with one voice
and soul, the clear, sweet tones of childhood blending with the deeper
sounds of manhood and womanhood,--the rough, rude building seemed as
the gate of heaven.

My appointment for the afternoon was at a small settlement eleven
miles away.

A charming drive through the "oak openings" and over the rolling
prairie brought us to the cabin which was to serve as meeting-house.
It was a long, low, one-roomed building, the logs of which it was
constructed still rejoicing in their primitive covering of bark, the
openings between them being closed with clay thrown in by hand. Mr.
G., the owner,--a short, gray-haired, brisk little man with a wooden
leg, gave me a cordial welcome, and, to show how willing he was to
have the meeting in his cabin, pointed to his shoemaker's bench, and
various articles of furniture, including a bedstead, trundle-bed, and
bedding, which had been removed from the room, and piled in admirable
disorder outside.

"You have been to a great deal of trouble," I remarked.

"None too much," he cheerily replied. "I am an old soldier, you see,
and that's why I have to hobble about on this," pointing to the
ancient artificial limb. "I was in the war of 1812, belonged to the
cavalry, and at the battle of--"

"Husband," gently interposed his wife,--an intellectual-looking woman,
with a face expressive of goodness,--"the minister will not care to
hear of war to-day;" adding, with a blush, "You must excuse us, sir;
but it is so long since we have seen one of your profession, or
attended religious services, that the days seem too much alike; there
is little here to remind us that the Sabbath should be kept holy. O,
it is so dreadful--so like heathenism--to live without the ordinances
of the gospel! No Sunday school for our children and youth, no servant
of God to counsel the dying, comfort the bereaved, and point the
heavy-laden to Christ!"

"Such a state of things must, indeed, be a great trial to those who
love the Saviour," I observed.

"Yes; and what adds to the trial," she continued, "is, that members of
churches, after they have been here awhile, fall into great laxity in
respect to the Lord's day. Those who were exemplary east, are here
seen starting upon or returning from a business journey on Sunday. O,
we need some one to gather these straying sheep, and unite them by the
public means of grace: many of them, I doubt not, are secretly longing
for this. For more than a year I have been praying that God would send
a servant of his this way."

"And sometimes, I dare say, you have felt almost discouraged," I
suggested.

"Yes," she replied, weeping; "but last week something came to
strengthen my faith, and later, intelligence that you were to visit
us. Months ago I wrote east for a donation of good reading to scatter
among the settlers, but received no response till, last Tuesday, a
package of books, tracts, and religious papers arrived. In one of the
papers was an article entitled 'The Pulpit and the Beech Tree.'"

"Here it is," said the husband, passing her the sheet; "better read it
to the parson; there'll be plenty of time afore the meeting;" and he
glanced at a venerable clock screwed to a log over the wide-mouthed
clay-stick-and-stone fireplace.

She read as follows: "Nearly a score of years ago, a pioneer sought a
home in one of the Western States. He selected a 'quarter section' in
a dense wilderness, and soon entered upon the arduous work of clearing
a farm. He was a man of athletic constitution, and well adapted to
cope with the trials on the frontier. He was in the prime of life; and
in those days a man was famous according as he had 'lifted axes upon
the thick trees.' This man was ranked among the leading characters in
that region. He could bear up with fortitude under all trials and
privations, except those of a religious kind.

"Before his removal to the west, he had enjoyed the privileges of a
large and well-regulated church, in which he had for years been a
prominent member. To be thus suddenly deprived of those blessed means
of grace caused him many painful feelings, and at times almost
incapacitated him for ordinary duties. This subject pressed so heavily
on his mind, that he often sought relief in laying his wants before
God in prayer. One day he enjoyed near access to the throne while on
his knees in a secluded part of the forest. He prayed earnestly that
God would make that wilderness and solitary place glad with the sound
of the gospel. He asked for the church privileges to which he had
been accustomed, and he felt assured that God could grant them. So
much was he engaged in pleading for this blessing, that he forgot his
work. His family looked for his return to dinner, but he came not.
They were alarmed, and, making search, found him on his knees. To this
man of God there was something peculiarly pleasant in the memory of
that approach to the mercy-seat. He loved the spot on which he had
knelt, and determined to mark it. It was by the side of a beech tree.
He 'blazed' it, so that in after years it might remind him of the
incident that I have related.

"That prayer was speedily answered. God put it into the hearts of the
people of that region to build a sanctuary in the desert. They have
now the stated means of grace. That pioneer is one of the officers of
the church. The membership is near eighty. The cause of religion seems
to be flourishing among them. Not long since it was my privilege to
preach in their house of worship; it was filled with an intelligent
congregation. At the close of the services, the old man gave me a
history of his praying under the beech tree, and, with tears in his
eyes, closed by saying, 'That tree stood only about five feet from the
very spot where you stood while preaching for us to-night.'"

"There," said she, at the conclusion of the narrative, "I felt that
this was a word in season to me. I fell upon my knees, and, with
increased earnestness, pleaded for the privileges of the gospel, and
rose feeling, as did the pioneer, that God would grant the request.
But how did my heart leap with glad surprise the next day,--that is,
last Wednesday,--when a neighbor called to consult me about a place
for you to preach in!"

But it was time for service. There was the same thronged attendance
and absorbed attention as in the morning. How delightful to proclaim
the tidings of great joy to those who are hungering for the word of
life! How different from ministering to fashionable worldly hearers,
who gather in the house of God for intellectual entertainment, or from
motives of custom, respectability, or ostentation, and who are
hardened by the very abundance of spiritual instruction!

At the close of the services, with the social freedom of western
intercourse, I was introduced to most present, and they all seemed
anxious that I should make a home in their neighborhood. How different
it would be to settle with this new people, on the precarious
subsistence which I might get for my family here, preaching, and
perhaps keeping house, in a log cabin, from the situation I must fill,
should I accept the call extended by the large and wealthy church in
N. A frontier parish on a prairie, on the outskirts of civilization,
and a city parish,--what a contrast! But my heart is strongly drawn
towards this people. Should I remain with them, what would my
money-loving, place-seeking, eastern friends say?

                  *       *       *       *       *

I have passed another delightful Sabbath, notwithstanding certain
trifling violations of the proprieties of worship as observed in
eastern assemblies.

It struck me quite ludicrously, at first, to see mother's listening to
the preaching while nursing or dandling their infants. Yesterday a
fat, burly baby, who, by some singular good fortune, had an
apple,--for we never see that fruit here,--let it drop from his fat
fist, and it rolled nearly to my feet; and the mother, not in the
least disconcerted, gravely came and picked it up, and returned it to
her boy. Nobody, however, was disturbed by the incident; all appeared
to take it as a matter of course. And I confess I like this absence of
fastidious conventionalities. Why should the mother be kept from the
house of God because she may not bring her child with her? "Suffer the
little children to come unto me, and forbid them not," said the great
Preacher when the disciples would drive out of _his_ congregation the
mothers and their infants. Is the servant more particular than his
Lord?

Then, too, the uncouth garments of many of my log-cabin hearers,--how
unlike the elegant and costly apparel worn in our eastern sanctuaries!
But I like the western way best as to dress. I enjoy seeing the poor,
in his plain attire, sitting unabashed by the side of the man in
"goodly apparel." And when I consider what thousands of starving souls
are kept out of Christian churches because they cannot dress in
broadcloth and silk, and how much money is wasted and vanity indulged
by the bedizened crowds that throng our sanctuaries, I am thankful
that the reign of fashion is unknown on the frontier.

But these hardy pioneers are bold and independent thinkers. The
preacher must show himself "a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
_rightly_ dividing the word of truth," if he would keep his hold on
their respect. It will not do to be careless even in teaching the
Sabbath school. I was suddenly reminded of this yesterday. Speaking on
the subject of benevolence, I had remarked that the poorest of us, if
we were careful not to waste, might have something that we could spare
as well as not to those needier than ourselves. And I inquired if any
scholar could tell me what scripture enforced this lesson. As no one
responded, I read the account of the multiplying of the loaves and
fishes when Christ fed the fainting multitudes; and coming to the
words, "Gather up the fragments, that nothing be lost," I asked, "Do
not these words show that we ought to save the pieces, that we may
give them to the hungry?"

"No, sir," promptly answered a lad of about sixteen.

Thinking he had misunderstood the question, I repeated it, saying, "I
asked, Thomas,"--for that was the boy's name,--"if this language does
not teach that we should save what we are apt to throw away, that we
may have something to give the poor."

"I do not think it does," he replied.

"Why not?" I inquired.

"Jesus told the disciples to share the nice new loaves with the
people, and to keep the bits and ends for themselves."

He was right. I had unconsciously been making that great miracle of
mercy teach stinginess! How often I had heard it explained to polished
audiences in New England in the same way, and not a criticism offered.
Yet the one who pointed out this strangely-common error was a child
belonging to one of the most thriftless of these frontier families.
His name is Jones; and he is, I think, a lad of promise, in whom I am
becoming much interested, as also in his father, a restless, singular
being, but who is more of a man, in my judgment, than he seems.

                  *       *       *       *       *

I am getting to feel more and more deeply that duty calls me to labor
here. If it were not for my dear wife and children, I should decide at
once to remain. But how could she get along in this out-of-the-world
place? Can she relinquish the comforts of her eastern home, and share
with me, for the Master's sake, the privations of the wilderness? The
settlers are kind, and say we shall not suffer. A subscription paper
has been started, and has already a goodly array of names; and brother
Palmer--an excellent man of some means--says he will furnish me money
with which to build a neat cottage.




CHAPTER VIII.

TOM'S VICTORY.


Tom retired to bed the night after his mother had confided to him the
history of his father's business trials, feeling that she had
conferred an honor upon him in thus sharing with him her life-secret,
and that he understood his parents as he never did before. He was
conscious, also, that she had put him under new obligation to be
always frank with her, as she had been with him; that she had, in
fact, made the obligation very sacred, for he realized that it was an
act of condescension in her thus to make him the repository of her
secrets, while to share his with her was but the duty of a child, and
for his own advantage. And he thought, "How can I now desert the
family for any imaginary good, and leave her to reproach me by her
patient cross-bearing for dear father and the children's sake?"

It cost him a bitter struggle to act in accordance with this view. In
the darkness of the night he wrestled long and hard to put down the
wish to free himself from the burden that was now laid upon his
conscience. He, the squatter's son, in his wretched life, had built up
a golden future for himself, as the ambitious young, of every
condition, are sure to do when once the heart is roused to wish, and
the mind to plan, for great things. And now, to give it all up, and
come down to the cheerless drudgery of home-service in _such_ a
home,--it could not be expected that he could do this, only after a
severe conflict with his own nature, if at all. It is true his mother
had exhorted him to wait for Providence to open the door before him.
But he could not help recalling, with an aching heart, through how
many long, weary years she had waited; and what door of relief had
been opened for her? And was she not a thousand fold more deserving of
such an interposition than he? He reflected on this point till his
brain was in a whirl; the more he pondered the matter, the darker it
seemed.

"I am called," he reasoned, "to keep by the family if I never see
brighter days--that's the meaning of her words, and the demands of my
lot. Am I ready to do this--to be true to duty, if it involves, as it
has to her, poverty, seclusion from privileges, toil, suffering,
obscurity?"

He knew that he ought thus to decide, and to decide cheerfully. But he
could not. He tried again and again to reach the decision only to
recoil from it. His will was powerless to calm the rebellion within.
Ah, the pioneer's ragged son had been precipitated into a solemn moral
crisis, which tested him, and showed him how weak he was! The tumult
of feeling, and sharpness of the battle, had, at length, cast him into
utter despair, when his mother's remark concerning his father's
mistake in setting about getting rich by the strength of his own will,
abruptly recurred to him.

"What did she mean by that?" he asked; and he sat bolt upright in bed
to consider the point.

He could not, however, quite master the idea, and wished his mother
was awake, that she might explain herself. Then his mind returned to
the subject, and lo, the mist rolled away, and the truth shone out.

"I see it: father should have sought direction and strength of God.
And that is just what I ought to do. He can give me grace to perform
my duty,--yes, even to choose it."

And Tom, under the inspiration of the light that was breaking in upon
his soul, resolved,--

"I'll ask God to enable me to do as mother has advised, and as I see
to be right in the circumstances."

And covering his face with his hands, he lifted up his heart in
prayer. As he prayed, a heavenly peace seemed to pervade his whole
being. It stole upon him so gently and unexpectedly, that he felt
like shouting praises to God; and at last, unable to keep his
marvellous happiness to himself, he called, softly,--

"Mother, mother!"

"What do you wish, my son?" she asked, always ready to answer her
children's calls.

"O, mother," he replied, "I have been struggling and praying, and I've
got the victory."

Instantly she was kneeling on the rough floor by his side,--she
understood him,--and tears of grateful joy ran down her face, and she
said,--

"It is as I would have it, Tom. God has taken you up, and all will be
well."

Next morning Tom arose with a peaceful, serious face. His mother did
not allude to the happy change that had transpired within him during
the night, but as she busied herself about breakfast, she would
occasionally wipe away the tears, for her heart was full.

"Mother," said he, as they finished their frugal meal, "I've been
thinking it would be a good plan to get up all the wood we can while
the weather is pleasant. Winter'll be coming along by and by, and
it'll be so nice to have a warm fire all the time then, and not have
to wade through the snow after something to burn."

"Yes," she replied, "we have not had our Indian summer yet; and while
that lasts we shall use but little fuel, and if you and the children
are smart, you can get quite a pile ahead."

"Why is the beautiful spell we have in fall called Indian summer?" he
asked.

"Because," replied his mother, "the Indians were in the habit of
attacking the white settlements then; they don't go on their war
expeditions after cold weather sets in. And," she added, sighing, "I
shall be glad when snow comes, for I shall feel that we are safe until
spring opens."

"The Allens are dreadful mad about their cattle," remarked Tom. "The
old man tracked them to a ravine in the woods, and found that his oxen
had been killed and dressed: the horns and hide lay on the ground, and
the blood was scarcely cold, but not an Indian was to be seen. He
couldn't even find a trail, and he's an old Indian-fighter, you
know."

"Have any Indians been seen near here, since?"

"Yes; Mr. Payson, the missionary, saw one the other morning as he was
going from Root River settlement to Slough Creek. He was passing the
Norwegian's cabin, near the grove, when suddenly a Sioux galloped by
on his pony, giving a loud whoop as he rode out of sight. And Mrs.
Pingry had a great scare. Her husband was away after supplies, and she
was alone about her work, when the door opened and an Indian stalked
in and took a seat. Pretty soon a second came, and did the same, and
then another; until a dozen sat round the room, silently smoking their
pipes. She says she knew by their manner and the way they were painted
that they intended mischief. She determined, however, not to appear
frightened, and went on with her work. Soon one of them got up and
broke open her husband's trunk, and then the rest fell to rummaging
the house, helping themselves to whatever they wished; and she was
expecting they would next assault her, when, to her relief, she heard
the barking of a dog, and the rumbling of wheels, at which the savages
took alarm, and in a moment were gone."

"And what," asked Mrs. Jones, "do the settlers think of this?"

"O, they only laugh about it. They don't expect any serious trouble.
They say that the chiefs have had a grand talk with the government
agent, and declare that they wish to be on good terms with us. But
some of our people do all they can to provoke the Indians, and say
they would like to have a brush with the red-skins!"

"But what's that?" he exclaimed, as loud shouts and the barking of
dogs broke on their ears. Mrs. Jones and Tom hurried to the door, and
saw some men and boys chasing a large animal across the prairie.

"A bear! a bear!" cried a neighbor, rushing breathlessly up to Tom,
saying, "Is your father at home? Tell him to come on, and we'll pepper
his carcass!" and without waiting for an answer, or explaining whose
carcass he meant, he hastened after the others.

The creature that they were pursuing was so fat that he did not run
very swiftly, and the dogs gained on him; aware of which, he was
making desperate efforts to gain the shelter of a small grove not far
off, while stringing along for quite a distance behind were his
pursuers. Some were hatless, a few had guns, but most were armed with
pitchforks or clubs; and one man, in his zeal, carried a piece of
rusty stove-pipe, although what use he proposed to put it to in
capturing Bruin, it was difficult to imagine, unless he intended,
should Bear gain the grove, to _smoke him out_ with it. The truth is,
he was putting up a stove in his cabin when the cry of "Bear, bear,"
interrupted his labors, and he joined the chase, forgetting that he
held anything in his hand. He was wiry, lank, and long-legged, with
sandy hair that came down straight and thin upon his shoulders, and
being without his coat, with pants that reached only half way between
his knees and ankles, he cut a ludicrous figure as he straddled on,
followed by a short, dumpy man, who, waddle as ambitiously as he
might, swiftly fell behind, without, however, seeming in the least
discouraged.

"There, they are surrounding the grove," said Tom, as the men and boys
spread out from the centre till they had encompassed Bruin's leafy
retreat.

Soon there was the report of guns, and not long after, the hunters
returned, looking tired and disappointed.

"The bear must have got away," said Mrs. Jones.

But Charley came rushing towards her, and, throwing up his cap,
cried,--

"O, isn't it fun! It wasn't a bear, mother; it was only Mr. Abbott's
black hog that he lost last fall, and thought was dead. He had run
wild, feeding on roots and acorns, and was awful fat. But they didn't
know 'twas a hog till they shot him, the dogs kept up such a yelping,
and the grass and bushes hid him so. They've gone after a wagon to
take him home."

But Tom was at work making an opening in the fence nearest the woods;
seeing which, Charley called out,--

"What you doing that for, Tom?"

"I've been thinking," answered Tom, pleasantly, "that we shall want
some wood near the cabin next winter, instead of digging it out of the
snow, and I'm fixing a place to drag it through."

"Yes, children," added the mother, "Tom and I have been talking it
over. Suppose you take hold together and see how big a pile you can
get up. It will be so nice to have plenty of wood to cook the
corn-cakes with, and keep us comfortable when it's freezing weather!"

The project pleased the youngsters, even to Bub, and, headed by Tom,
they began at once to put it into execution.

It is customary in new countries for the first comers to help
themselves freely to the trees on government land, for logs with which
to construct their cabins, and to rive into shingles and saw into
boards; and many a sinewy oak had fallen before the frontiersman's axe
in the woods near the Joneses, leaving the brawny limbs upon the
ground. There were also many dead trees still standing, and from these
sources dry, hard wood of the best quality could always be obtained.

Tom directed operations. The limbs and small dead trees were thrown or
dragged in piles a certain distance towards the field; from there
another took them to the opening in the fence, and from thence others
of the youngsters pulled them up to the house. The girls and boys had
a merry time of it, Sarah making the woods ring with her bird-like
voice as she sang at her task, while many a joke was exchanged by the
lively little company. But no one of them entered on the labor with
more zeal, and a higher appreciation of his own services, than Bub.

"That child is always under foot," said Eliza, as she stumbled over
him while tugging along a scrawny limb.

"You ought to go into the house," said Tom; "I'm afraid you'll get
hurt."

"No, I won't," answered the child, "tause I dot to tarry in the wood;"
and seizing a long branch under one dimpled arm, and a short, heavy
one under the other, to make good his words, with the will of an older
head, he started for the cabin.

Out from under his arm would be wrenched the long one by some bush
beside the path, and Bub would pick it up and pull at it until it had
cleared itself, when down would go the big piece from the other arm.
Then he would bravely lift it again, his baby frock going up with it;
and thus dropping his load and picking it up, with an occasional
tumble, which he would not cry about, he reached the house, dragging
his load in through the door, to the imminent danger of knocking over
the old stove. He now rested from his labors to eat a cold potato and
a piece of his mother's much-loved corn-cake, which, while disposing
of, he dropped asleep, his rosy cheeks crammed to their utmost
capacity.

"Pooh!" cried Charley, coming noisily in to see if dinner was most
ready, "why didn't you keep to work, like the rest of us?"

Bub resumed eating, and replied, dignifiedly,--

"Tause I found out that it wasn't fun."

The unexpected effect of his answer on Charley, who received it with
uproarious laughter, highly offended the child; and when Charley was
out of sight, he said to his mother,--

"I isn't never going to work no more."

"Ah, why not?" she inquired.

"Tause I don't like to work."

"Then," said she, "you'll never make a man."

"Do men have to work?" he asked.

"Certainly," she replied.

"Then I won't be a man," he answered, decidedly.

"Won't!" exclaimed his mother; "what, then, will you be?"

"I sail be a missernary, and walk wound, and wear dold dlasses!"




CHAPTER IX.

A SURPRISE.


"Can you tell me, sir, if I can find a conveyance for myself and
children to L----, Minnesota?" inquired a lady of the attentive clerk
at a hotel in the thriving young town of Dacotah, Iowa.

"There is no stage running to that point," he replied; "but we can
send a team with you, if you wish to go to so much expense."

"I would like," answered the lady, smiling, "to get there with as
little cost as I can. My husband is a missionary. I am on my way to
join him."

"I will see what I can do for you," returned the clerk, bowing
respectfully; and, stepping into the bar-room, he asked,--

"Is there any one here going to L---- to-day?"

"I shall go half way there," said a short, sharp-nosed, black-eyed
man, who sat reading an eastern paper.

"Could you take a passenger or two?"

"I'm pretty well loaded," he answered; "but I always find room for one
more, seeing it pays."

"It's a clergyman's wife and children," said the clerk, in a lower
tone.

"O, well," replied the other, rising to his feet, "they shall go
along, pay or no pay;" and he followed the clerk, who introduced the
parties to each other with,--

"Mr. Sawyer--Mrs. Payson. He will take you as far as he goes."

"And how far is that?" she inquired.

"About twenty miles."

"But how shall I get over the remainder of the distance?"

"Don't be concerned about that," replied the man, heartily. "I guess
there'll be a way to forward you all right."

And in a half hour his team was before the door, waiting to take her
farther into the wilderness. A pair of stout iron-grays harnessed into
a long, open wagon, affording space for a large variety of boxes and
packages, and three rows of cushionless seats, constituted the
conveyance. Its owner had been on a trading expedition, but, with an
eye to "the main chance," was prepared to catch some of the travel
going westward. The wagon was crowded with passengers; and, disposing
of the three children,--a delicate, intelligent little boy and his
two sisters--in the laps of those already seated, the teamster
assisted the mother to a seat at his side. Their presence, it was
evident, excited much interest; for the manner and dress of the little
family betrayed New England birth and culture.

"Your husband," said the owner of the conveyance, as his horses
trotted sturdily along, "rode up with me the other day. He had been
down to the Mississippi waiting for you a whole week, and the landlord
at McGreggor's Landing said he was the bluest man he ever saw, because
you did not arrive."

"I am sorry that he was anxious on my account," replied the wife, with
a merry laugh. "He didn't wish me to venture on the journey alone with
the children, and wrote that he would return for me if I could not
find suitable company; but, not wishing to take him from his labors, I
packed up, and took our darlings along."

"I hope you didn't meet with any accident on the way," observed a man
on the back seat. "You was pretty resolute."

"No; but I came near losing one of my little girls."

"How did it happen?" asked a motherly-looking woman.

"It was in the depot at Springfield. The children were thirsty, and,
charging them not to stir until I came back, I crossed the room for
water. There was a great crowd rushing here and there, trains were
coming and going, all was bustle and confusion, and I hurried, not
having been away but a moment; but little Fannie, my youngest girl,
was missing. Helen, the eldest, had been so taken up with the sights
and sounds about her, that she did not know that her sister was gone.
I was almost frantic with fear, she had so suddenly and completely
disappeared. So, throwing my bonnet back upon my shoulders to attract
attention, I cried at the top of my lungs,--

"My child! my child! I've lost my child!"

"Child lost! child lost!" shouted a number of voices, repeating the
description I gave of her. Nobody seemed to have seen her; and a
terrible dread that I might not find her wrung my heart, when, to my
joy, above the din, I heard some one exclaim,--

"She's found! she's found! Where's the mother?" and a gentleman,
holding her aloft, brought her to me. He was deeply agitated, and
said,--

"Your little girl, madam, came very near being killed. I found her
under the car between two of the wheels, playing with them, saying,
'Car may hurt a me; car may hurt a me.' The last bell had rung, and I
had barely time to drag her off the track when the train started."

"It must have been a great care for you," remarked a passenger, "to
bring your children on so long a journey."

"It was, indeed," she replied. "Generally the worst part of it was in
getting them into the trains: the children are so small, and the rush
of passengers so great, that they were in danger of being trampled on,
or prevented from getting aboard in season."

"Everybody looks out for Number One at such times," said a man. "I
often think that we see more of the selfishness of human nature while
travelling than under any other circumstances. I suppose you were left
to get along as best you could with your little ones."

"Usually," she replied. "Sometimes, however, a stranger, bound the
same way, would give us a helping hand; but often he would blunder so
as to make matters worse. Once I was both amused and frightened. I was
struggling to place my children on a train just starting, and, making
little headway. I called out, 'Will some one help my children into the
cars?' when one of the largest, fattest men I ever saw, who was
panting and puffing from his unusual efforts at hurrying, caught up my
little boy, and, trotting on like an elephant, he struck his foot
against a stone, and came down sprawling into the sand, uttering a
great, wild cry, and giving my little boy a throw at the same time. I
felt sorry for the man, but thought I should die laughing at the queer
figure he cut. And, ungrateful as it seemed, I was obliged, in going
for my boy, to pass around our huge friend, and ride off, leaving him
to pick himself up at his leisure."

There was much merriment at this recital, which was increased by a
portly Englishman behind her saying, in a jolly way,--

"Hi feel as if hi could happreciate that story, mem!"

"But how do you think you'll like living west?" asked the motherly
woman. "It seems to me that the likes of you won't know how to put up
with our rough ways."

"O," replied the clergyman's wife, with an enthusiasm which showed
what manner of spirit she was of, "I did not come out here for
enjoyment, but to cheer and help my husband in laboring for Christ."

"Well," answered the other, wiping a tear from her eye, "the land
knows we need such folks among us; and if we don't have things as nice
as you do your way, I hope you'll find us westerners ready to do what
we can for the good cause. Most of us have seen better times, and have
known what it was to go to meeting every Sunday, and do our mite
towards supporting preaching, and we are willing to do it again."

"See, mother," exclaimed little Helen,--a bright, wide-awake miss of
six years,--"what a large garden!"

The team had passed the irregular ridges of the bluffs extending
inland from the Mississippi, and had attained the summit of a gentle
swell of land commanding an extensive prairie view, and the whole
landscape was bedecked with flowers of every hue and shape. The
child's wondering eyes danced with delight, and she said,--

"Mother, isn't the man who owns this great garden very rich?"

"This don't belong to any one man, my dear," replied her mother,
smiling; "it is one of _God's_ gardens. He planted all these flowers,
and made them grow without anybody's help. All these are wild
flowers."

"O," exclaimed the child, "how good he is!--isn't he, mother? Has God
such a garden where our new home is?"

"I expect he has," she answered; "for out here, my child, it's almost
all garden. You might ride thousands of miles, and not see a stone, or
any sand--nothing but the green grass and the sweet blooming
flowers."

"O," cried Blue-eye, clapping her hands, "I'm so glad we've come
west!--aren't you, mother?"

The passengers were delighted with the prattle of the dear girl, and
the matronly lady who had her in charge could not forbear giving her a
kiss, and said,--

"I hope you will meet with nothing more unpleasant than prairie
flowers."

But just then the child's bright eyes caught sight of a settler
pursuing his lonely way with his gun on his shoulder, his tall figure
standing in bold relief against the sky, although he was several miles
in the distance, and she asked,--

"Mamma, is that a wild man?" And, later, seeing a cow grazing, she
inquired, "Is that a wild cow?"

The next night, about sundown, Mr. Sawyer deposited the missionary's
family at Mr. Lincoln's snug western cottage.

"Well," said Mrs. Lincoln, laughing, as she took her guest's things,
"you've stolen a march on your husband this time."

"Isn't he here?" asked Mrs. Payson, with a disappointed air.

"No," she replied. "He spent a week at the Mississippi, waiting for
you. And, fearing you might get carried by, or injured in leaving the
steamer,--for you know little ceremony is used towards passengers or
their goods,--he visited each boat as it arrived, and had the porter
at the hotel call him up at every boat through the night, inquiring of
the passengers if they had seen a lady of your description with three
young children; and hearing, since he returned, that one resembling
you had gone to the Landing higher up on the river, he went there
yesterday, hoping to meet you, and bring you back with him. He'll
probably get here late this evening; and won't we give him a
surprise?"

It was about nine o'clock when the missionary returned, alone,
anxious, and dejected.

"You don't look as if you found your lost wife and babies," said his
host, sympathizingly.

"No, and I don't know what to make of it. I inquired thoroughly. I
looked the papers over also, but did not find that there had been any
railroad accident of late. I am afraid she has been taken sick on the
way. It was barbarous in me to listen a moment to the idea of her
coming all the way alone, with three children, from Massachusetts to
Minnesota. I ought to have insisted on her remaining at home until I
could have gone for her."

"Perhaps," suggested Mr. Lincoln, "she thought it wasn't prudent to
venture on such a journey, and wrote you so, but the letter has
miscarried."

"I know her too well to think so," responded the minister. "She has
started on her way here. She had decided to do so as a matter of duty;
and, having made her mind up on that point, she would come right on if
she met with a railroad accident every other train--if she is a
delicate little body."

"Well, you look tired enough to drop," said Mrs. Lincoln, abruptly,
turning her head to conceal a smile. "I think you had better retire
early."

The clergyman was quite taken aback at this piece of advice; but Mr.
Lincoln relieved his astonishment by saying,--

"My wife, hoping that you might be cheered by the arrival of your
family, has been fixing up your room a bit, and I suppose she won't
rest to-night unless she sees how you like the improvements."

And Mrs. Lincoln opening the door into his apartment, the missionary
saw before him his three children, sleeping peacefully in their nice
beds, and his wife seated in a rocking-chair, exercising a world of
self-control, in order to carry out the plot of surprising him.




CHAPTER X.

"NO WHISKEY AT THIS RAISING!"


If the Scottish bard found it a hard experience that

                'The best laid schemes of mice and men
                        Gang oft agla'

in staid old Scotland, how would he have sung if his lot had been cast
amid the vicissitudes of frontier life on an American prairie?

We speak of the uncertainties of all earthly expectations where
society organized, helps man in a thousand ways to achieve his plans;
but there is nothing settled in a new country: everything is in
embryo, and therefore disappointments are indefinitely multiplied.
When the immigrant arrives at his destination, he soon finds that his
most reasonable projects prove to be the veriest air-castles, and that
his reliance must be on Providence and his own strong arm. This state
of things is specially trying to the man of small means and
unaccustomed to physical toil, as was the case with Mr. Payson. The
settlers, especially those of religious character, had made, in true
western style, many and generous promises to induce him to live among
them. They designed to keep their engagements with him; but a thousand
contingencies were continually arising, which they could not foresee,
to render the fulfilment of their agreements impossible. But perhaps
no failure in this direction had tried the missionary so much as that
connected with the erection of a dwelling-house. Mr. Palmer had
voluntarily made him the offer of money for that purpose, and if any
man could be depended upon, it was he; but he had invested his funds
in the new town. He was a prudent man, and when the proposal was made
him by the two proprietors to join them in the enterprise, he was
disinclined to do so. They were irreligious men, stirring, energetic
workers, but devoid of interest in "things unseen," and therefore
could not be expected to care for the present and future moral
condition of the settlement. Yet we should do them the justice to say
that they were not indifferent to the religious welfare of their
village, only that, not being religious men, they would not take the
matter in charge themselves; they needed a leader, both to plan and to
set a wholesome example, and this was one reason for their asking Mr.
Palmer to become a partner. This reason was a weighty one with him;
but before deciding the question, he consulted with Mr. Payson.

Laying the whole matter before him, he asked,--

"What do you think of my engaging in this thing?"

"I do hope," he answered, "that, if you can make it pecuniarily
successful, you will become a town owner. I should feel that I had a
pillar to lean upon in all my endeavors for the social and religious
good of this people, and it seems to me that there can be no risk in
it; we have everything here to make a town,--water-power, timber,
limestone quarries for building material, abundance of clean prairie
land for agricultural purposes, and sooner or later a railroad must
pass very near here, as it is on the great travelled route to the
important points west and north. Emigration is coming in well; we have
a religious meeting established, and I hope soon we shall have a
school."

"That is the way it seems to me," said Mr. Palmer; "and it appears
also, that I might do a great deal of good by using aright the power a
town owner might have."

So he decided to make the investment. But mishap after mishap occurred
to thwart the enterprises of the town owners; and while their expenses
were large, the returns were so small that Mr. Palmer came to the
preacher one day, and with emotion said,--

"Mr. Payson, I fear I shall have to disappoint you about the money I
promised to let you have for the building of your cottage."

This was a heavy blow to the missionary, and his friend knew too well
that it would be, for Mr. Payson had set his heart on having a
comfortable home provided for his family when they should arrive. Many
a pleasant bit of correspondence had passed between himself and wife
on the subject of the pretty white cottage, on the eighty-acre lot
adjoining the town, and the joy of meeting her was overshadowed by the
thought that she had come to a homeless wilderness, while expecting
something so different; and when she asked repeatedly if the cottage
was ready, and when he was going to take her to see it, in his
unhappiness he avoided a direct reply, which, with the ominous silence
of the good friends by whom they were entertained, led her to
conjecture how matters stood; and one day she lifted the weight in a
measure from his heart by saying,--

"It would be very strange, while almost everybody in a new country are
obliged to live in log cabins, if we should be enough better off to
put up a framed house. I don't believe you have been able to yet; it
is too much to expect. But never mind; if others can live within log
walls for the sake of making money, we certainly can for a higher
motive."

"Just like yourself," said he, gratefully, relating the facts as we
have recited them.

"But what are we going to do?" she inquired; "we ought not to think of
accepting the hospitality of this generous-hearted family much longer.
Their house is already so crowded, it puts them to great
inconvenience."

"I am aware of it," said her husband. "Mr. Palmer has a little cabin
which he has offered me for temporary use until I can put up something
on my claim; but it is so rough and lonely, that on your account I
have not felt like saying anything to you about it."

"O," said she, merrily, "do take me there to-day; it would be so
romantic to live in a log cabin."

So, their host's team being chartered, they went to look at the
"rent." It was a funny wee loggery, hastily put up for pre-emption
purpose, standing in a small, enclosed field near the river, two miles
from town, the nearest neighbor being Mr. Jones, who lived a mile and
a half farther down the stream.

Mr. Palmer, in anticipation of the visit, had been there before them,
and put in a whole glass window, laid the rough boards, that
constituted the floor, more closely, and put up some shelves for a
cupboard in a corner.

"This is elegance itself!" exclaimed the little woman, laughing
heartily: "get a few chairs, and a stove, husband, and we'll move
right in; and see," she added, looking out of the door; "there are
potatoes here that have not been dug--quite a crop: perhaps you can
buy the right to use them."

"O, yes," replied her husband; "brother Palmer says we can have the
use of the cabin free, and all there is about it."

"The fish in the river, too, I suppose," said she, stepping to the
fence, and peering over the river brink.

"I reckon you won't get fish enough to get sick on them," said a voice
near; and, Mr. Jones emerged from a clump of bushes, his gun on his
shoulder.

"This is our neighbor," said the minister; "my wife, Mr. Jones."

"Looking up a cage to put your bird in?" asked the squatter.

The minister replied affirmatively.

"You found that eighty-acre lot just as I told ye--didn't ye?" he
asked.

"Precisely."

"And did your 'brother Smith' give it up like a Christian?" he
pursued.

"I suppose I am the proprietor of it now," said the minister,
good-naturedly.

"And he didn't charge you anything for giving up what was not his--did
he?"

"No," said the missionary; "he did not charge me anything for the
claim, although he seemed to think it right that I should give him
something for the improvements."

"Improvements! Yes, I suppose he expects some pay for the saw logs he
stole from the lot, while he had acres on acres of timber of his own.
It's no more'n fair that a Christian man should be paid for the lumber
he plunders from other folks' land. You paid him for that, of
course?"

"O, no," replied Mr. Payson; "he didn't bring in his bill for that. He
had cleared and fenced the ten-acre piece over the river, and he said
he didn't wish to lose his labor."

"Well," said Mr. Jones, almost fiercely, "I wasn't aware, elder, that
you employed him to do that little job; I thought that was done last
year, 'fore we knew anything 'bout you in these parts."

"Yes, yes," said the missionary, coloring.

"And I rather think," he continued, "that he got his pay for his work,
as he expected to, in what he took from the land. I never saw better
corn and wheat, let alone the potatoes and the pumpkins that he raised
on that river bottom; and as to the rails, they belong where he took
them from, that eighty-acre lot that he robbed and impoverished,
tilling the soil in the summer, and cutting down the best trees in the
winter, and working what he didn't care about into rails; and now he
turns around,--after having skimmed your milk, when he had plenty of
his own,--and tells you, as a Christian brother, that you orter pay
him for taking off the cream, and making butter of it for his own
table. May I ask what he charged you for the operation?"

"He asked," said the minister, "eighty dollars, but concluded to take
thirty."

"And when you form your church you'll choose him first deacon--won't
you?" said the squatter, sneeringly.

"Neighbor Jones," said the minister, quietly, "I find that Mr. Smith's
character is pretty well understood among the settlers. From all I can
learn, I judge that he has never been a member of a church, but is one
of a too large class, who try to palm themselves off on religious
people, that they may the better carry out their own wicked and
selfish ends. I did not pay him the thirty dollars because he had a
right to ask it of me, but because I had rather sacrifice something
than to expose the spiritual welfare of this people by giving an
occasion for a quarrel, however unjustly; and, mark me, the time will
come when that money, small as the amount is, will be a burden to the
conscience of that man. But," he added, suddenly changing the
subject, "we expect to have a raising on my lot day after to-morrow.
Cannot I rely on you for a lift?"

"Ah," said he, "what are you going to put up there--a framed house?"

"O, no," replied the minister, smiling, "only a few logs. The town
owners are going to let me take down the log house they have used on
the other side of the river,--as the logs are so well seasoned,--and
put them up on my place; and, wife,"--turning to her,--"we shall have
to depend on you for refreshments for the occasion."

"You have given me short notice," she replied, "but I can have things
ready if you can manage to get supplies, and a stove up in season."

"If you want a little help in getting started here," said Mr. Jones,
"I'll send up my Tom; I guess he'd like to lend you a hand."

"Could he come to-day?" asked Mrs. Payson.

"I'll send him right along," said the squatter, as he bent his steps
towards home.

"What are we going to do for a stove?" asked the wife, as soon as he
was out of sight.

"That'll be forthcoming," said the minister.

Tom, having made his appearance, was requested by Mr. Payson to take
the team and go to town, and say to Mr. Palmer that they had decided
to move into the cabin, and would like to get settled before night;
which message brought Mr. Palmer back with Tom, accompanied by a
wagon-load, containing a large cooking-stove, a bag of flour, some
chairs, a little crockery, and a supply of various eatables. And by
nightfall the missionary family were domiciled in the frontier cabin;
and the next morning you would have thought the missionary's wife
already quite 'westernized,' with her neat calico and tidy apron, busy
in her preparations for the house-raising.

"I don't mean to stay in a borrowed house a great while," she said.
"Husband, how soon do you calculate that we can be housekeeping in our
own cabin?"

"It will take some weeks, do our best," he answered.

"Well," she rejoined, "I'll set the time four weeks from to-day; and
if it isn't ready then, I shall go into it if I have to leave you
behind."

But how slowly everything dragged, except the raising! The settlers
went into that with right good will; men and teams were busy drawing
the logs, while experienced hands placed them properly upon each
other, till the ridge-pole crowned the whole. Then they sat down on
the grass to partake of the tempting eatables that Tom and Mr. Payson
had brought on the ground. There were the light biscuits and the
golden butter, nice venison steaks for which they were indebted to the
rifle of Mr. Jones, dried apple turnovers, and the sheets of crisp
gingerbread, loaf cake, and fragrant coffee.

"We don't get any whiskey at this raising!" said Mr. Palmer, nudging
his next neighbor.

"No," he replied; "and it's an example that I hope will be often
followed."

Then there was the door to be made and hung, and the windows to be
put in, and the crevices between the logs to be mortared, and the
floors laid--long and tedious operations, where everybody was
over-busy, and labor could be hired neither "for love nor money." Mr.
Payson found that much of the work had to be done by himself, with
the occasional help of Tom. He was city-bred, and his bodily
strength feeble; but necessity obliged him to perform prodigies of
teaming, lifting, and joinering, and even of quarrying stone for the
well that was being dug. A few weeks had wrought a wonderful
change in the man of books; his study was wherever he chanced to be;
his white hands had become horny and browned, his pale face
tanned. His retiring habits had given place to a broad sociality,
his diffidence to a generous self-reliance, and it seemed to him
that he could do and dare almost anything. From early morning till
late at night he worked to get his log home ready, while his wife
and little ones remained in the solitary cabin by the riverside.
It was a long walk for him, however after toiling all day; and
when the sky was overcast at nightfall, he was in danger of
getting lost. This gave his wife much uneasiness; then she feared
that he might meet some prowling wolf, or other beast, in the
darkness; and when he was very late, she would be sure to think he
was lost, and would ring her house-bell, which consisted of a tin pan,
on which she would drum vigorously with the stove-lifter. She said
he would recognize that sound, she thought, at a great distance.

But the four weeks went by, and on account of the difficulty of
getting lumber, and other necessary articles, the roof was still
unshingled, and the floor only half laid. The wife, like most women,
had a very good memory for dates. The log cabin they occupied was
open, and the prairie winds cold and piercing, and for a few days she
had been quite ill; but that morning, after her unsuspicious husband
had left for his joinering, Tom might have been seen guiding a yoke of
cattle, attached to a cart, into the enclosure, which, after much
"geeing" and "gee-hawing," he managed to make stand before the door.

"Charlie," said he, as that urchin made his appearance from the inside
of the cart, "you stand by the cattle while I put the things aboard."

And bringing out a barrel filled with crockery and other things, which
Mrs. Payson had clandestinely packed for the occasion, and the
wash-boiler full of eatables, and hanging the chairs over the cart
stakes, he took down the bedsteads, and placed them in a manner that
was highly satisfactory to the energetic minister's wife, and tying up
the bed-clothes in great bundles, deposited them also; and saying to
Mrs. Payson, "I shall have to fix an easy place for you to ride, as
you've been sick," he laid the hard beds in the empty space which he
had left for that purpose in the cart, with the feather beds above,
saying,--

"There, you won't feel the motion much now;" and assisting her to
mount, she was enthroned on her downy seat on the top of the load,
with the children in high glee by her side.

The steers, which were notoriously unruly, as if aware that they had a
minister's wife aboard, behaved with becoming decorum under Tom's wise
supervision.

Now, it chanced that some careless hunter, firing into the dry prairie
grass on the other side of the town, had started a fire. Mrs. Payson
had noticed in the morning that there was a smell of burning in the
air, and a hazy appearance, but had attached no particular importance
to it; but as they approached the town, a scene of great magnificence
burst upon her. The fires, driven with velocity before the wind, had
swept over the prairies, and reached the belt of woods, in a portion
of which were the eighty acres that her husband was at work upon. The
flames were crackling and roaring in the forests, burning up the dry
underbrush, shooting to the tops of the old dead pines, so that the
scene being constantly on her left, was more or less in view for most
of the distance.

"What shall we do?" asked Tom, in alarm. "Hadn't we better go back?"

"Do you think the fire has reached my husband's claim?" she answered.

Tom scanned the appearance of the smoke with a practised eye, and at
length replied,--

"No; it's not got as far as there yet."

"Do you think it will?" she inquired, anxiously.

"If the wind does not change, it must before a great while," he said,
"although it will have to cross the road, which will backen it some."

"Would it burn up the cabin, then?" she inquired.

"I am afraid it would," he answered.

"Well," said she, firmly, "I said I would go into that cabin in four
weeks, and if it's not burnt down, I shall keep my word. At any rate
we shall be in season to see the fire!" Then she added, looking grave,
"I do hope, if it is the Lord's will, that the fire will be checked in
time, my husband has toiled so hard."

As the cart turned up the main street of the town, she caught sight
of the cabin that was to be her future home, and she saw her husband,
too, at the same moment, for there he sat on the roof, gazing at the
fire, which seemed to be dying out. He heard the rumbling of the
wheels as they drew near, and as he caught sight of the
picturesque-looking object approaching, he called out,--

"Why, what under the canopy have we here? Wife, and babies, and
household effects! What does this mean? You are not going to emigrate
farther west--are you?"

"If you'll _de_scend from your elevated position," she replied,
cheerily, "I'll _con_descend to inform you. Now," she added, "you know
I told you, husband, I should move into the cabin to-day; and did you
ever know me to break my word?"

"But," said he, looking disconcerted, "I'm not ready for you yet; the
floor isn't half laid."

"Well," she replied, "I can't stand it to have you sweating up here
all alone at your task, running the risk of being devoured by the
wolves, or losing your way at night because you think the cabin isn't
comfortable enough for me. Why, you are as particular about having
everything done just so about this cabin, as you used to be, east, in
having every word exactly in its place when you wrote your sermons.
Please, now, just help Tom unload, and set these things in, and I'll
have tea ready directly, and we'll be where we can cheer you a bit.
But what about this fire?"

"Our cabin has had a very narrow escape."

"Yes," said Tom, coming up, "I've been out to look, and the fire just
came up to your line, and then stopped."

Mr. Payson was deeply affected by the intelligence, for, knowing that
no human power could stay the advancing flames, upon the cabin top he
had been praying that the wind might change. Was it in answer to his
silent petitions that it had taken place in so timely a manner?




CHAPTER XI.

OLD MRS. SKINFLINT IN TROUBLE.--LOST IN THE WOODS.


There is no man so bad as he might be--a fact that everybody knows,
but that most are apt to forget in their estimate of those who have
offended their sense of right.

Mr. Smith had his virtues as well as faults; perhaps more of the
latter than the former; but there were some mollifying circumstances
to be taken into the account in the summing up of his character. His
natural love of money had been stimulated and intensified by the
malign influence of his wife. She was miserly when he married her. To
keep what she had, and get what she could, was her ruling passion;
besides which she had a passion _for_ ruling. And often, when her
husband's gentler heart would be touched by a tale of suffering, and
his hand be opened to relieve the distressed, would she interfere to
prevent the indulgence of the benevolent impulse; and now, after some
thirty years' matrimonial moulding, he had become so assimilated to
her grasping spirit, and so accustomed to yield to her stronger will,
that his dealings in business made him appear worse than he really
was. In the sale of the "eighty-acre lot" to the missionary, about
which much indignation was felt in the settlement, Mrs. Smith was the
chief actor. Mr. Smith was the monkey employed to pull the chestnuts
out of the fire, although, it must be confessed, he relished the
chestnuts. She was a crafty woman, and kept out of sight in the
transaction while she urged him on, so that people saw only Mr. Smith
in the wrong-doing, when, if they could have peeped behind the
curtain, they would have seen that his "better half" was the more
guilty.

The thirty dollars which Mr. Smith finally consented to take for the
"improvements on the claim," Mr. Payson was unable to pay all at once;
he was, therefore, subjected to many vexatious duns for the balance.
Fearing that, at last, her husband would relent, and the debt might
not all be realized, Mrs. Smith resolved to turn collector herself.
So, putting on her best cap, and her faded black alpaca, she made her
way through the woods to the missionary's cabin.

When she reached it, she found no one but Tom and Bub within; for Mr.
Lincoln had called with his team, and taken the family to dine at his
house.

"Is the minister to home?" she asked.

"No," replied Tom.

"When will he be back?"

"I don't know," said Tom; "but he expects to attend a wedding this
evening, and, as it's now 'most four, I expect him every minute."

"Then," said she, "I guess I'll take a chair and wait. My husband has
a small bill agin him, and I thought maybe he'd just as lief pay it
now as any time."

She was garrulous and inquisitive, plying Tom with all sorts of
questions about the minister's family, much to the annoyance of the
lad, who, remembering that there were certain errands yet to be done
that afternoon,--for Tom was now often at the cabin assisting the
minister,--he asked her if she would look after Bub while he went to
the village, saying he thought it likely the family would return
before he did. The old lady rather liked the arrangement, as it would
give her a chance to inspect the housekeeping of the minister's wife;
and, watching Tom till he was well into town, she commenced her
examinations. First she opened the closet door to see how the dishes
were arranged, for she had heard that once on a time the good man's
lady had committed the great crime of writing a book; and she had
often remarked that "anybody that could waste their time in sich a way
must be a master slack housekeeper." To her disappointment, however,
she found that quite as good order, and rather more taste, reigned
there than in her own pantry, but was relieved again a moment at
finding an unwashed plate.

"Just as I thought," she muttered, with a grunt of satisfaction.

Having finished her leisurely inspection of the cupboard, during which
she smelled of the bread to see if it was sour, broke off a bit of the
cake to see if it was extravagant, and sucked some plum sauce from the
ends of her fingers, she started to peer under the bed to ascertain if
there was any dust there, when, hearing a noise, supposing that the
minister had come, she turned and closed the closet door, and reseated
herself, wiping her mouth with her apron as she did so. This change of
posture brought her into full view of the stairs leading to the loft
above, which humble place, under the roof, the clergyman used for a
study when he wished to be _very much_ retired. On the stairs,
descending with solemn step and slow, was Bub, with the minister's old
hat on, which he kept above his eyes by one chubby hand, and the
minister's steel-bowed glasses resting on his nose, and the good man's
dressing-gown trailing magnificently behind. Bub's manner showed that
he felt his consequence much increased by his clerical outfit, and
the benignant gravity of his face was edifying to behold.

"Goodness gracious!" exclaimed the old lady; "what on airth you up to,
you imp o' Satan? Can't you berhave in the minister's house?" and,
seizing the urchin as he landed, she only ceased shaking him as the
spectacles dropped to the floor.

This reception was wholly unexpected to poor Bub, and, as she relieved
him of his ministerial vestments, he sobbed indignantly,--

"Now Bub go wite away, and never come back no more!" and, opening the
door, he marched resolutely out.

The elderly caller had now the congenial duty to do of restoring the
minister's apparel to its proper place overhead; and, glancing out of
the window, to be sure nobody was coming, she ascended to the
missionary's _sanctum sanctorum_.

Now, Rev. Mr. Payson, in his varied pursuits of preacher, pastor,
house-carpenter, stone-mason, farmer, and doctor,--for, having skill
in medicine, the sick depended somewhat on his medical care,--he was
quite apt to leave his uninviting study in disorder, especially when
suddenly called from home. Moreover, like the other cabins in a new
country, the house was overrun with field mice, making it, as Mr.
Payson sometimes said, "dangerous to sleep with one's mouth open, lest
a mouse might mistake it for his hole, and pop in." Whether, however,
such a suffocating casualty would occur or not, the wee animals chased
each other along the logs, ransacked the closet, scampered across the
beds, nibbling at everything that tempted their sharp little teeth;
even the clergyman's books and papers were mutilated by them most
irreverently.

The sight of the sheets and bits of writing paper, the news journals,
and old reviews,--for the missionary, unable to take the current
publications, read and re-read the old ones with a mournful
satisfaction,--and the other signs of confusion which prevailed, and
which so annoyed his wife, were as refreshing to Mrs. Smith's eyes as
the first glimpse of land to Columbus.

"Zactly as I expected," she ejaculated, lifting her hands in horror.
"I alluz hearn tell that these ere lit'ry women are a shiftless set. I
should think it would worry a man's life out of his body to be jined
to sich a hussy. Why, there's my Betsy Ann; she ken go a visitin' more
'n half the time, and her husband never said boo agin her house-work;
an' I've known lots o' women what could embroider, an' play the piana,
an' make heaps o' calls, an' attind balls an' sich till enymost
mornin', an' they'd no more think o' wastin' their time in writin' a
book than cuttin' their heads off! But duzzn't them books look pooty
on them shelves? I should think it would make the minister's head
split if he knows all that's in them volums; an' they do say he's
ter'ble larned. Well, I mustn't stay here no longer, though it's jist
as I expected." And, returning to the room below, she lifted her hands
again in astonishment as she saw by the clock that it was five. "I
guess John'll have to git his own fodder to-night, or go without. He's
used to it, though. I brings my man up not to expect a woman to
drudge, drudge, about house. But, mercy me!" she exclaimed, "where's
that child gone to? I warrant he's in some mischief;" and, opening the
door, she called,--

"Bub, Bub! come inter the huss!"

But Bub did not answer. So she went around the cabin, but could see
nothing of him, and, thinking that he would not come because it was
she that called him, she added,--

"Come right in now; Tom wants yer."

There was only a slight clearing around the cabin, and then came a
thick growth of bushes, and beyond, the woods on either hand, save the
path in the direction of the town. It was but a few rods to the
nearest house in the village, and she hurried there to make inquiries,
for she was becoming anxious for the child. But the children, playing
near by, said that Bub had not passed that way, so, running back, she
instituted a new search in the vicinity of the cabin, calling him as
before, and receiving no answer; and, as there was a wide cart track
leading into the woods from the cabin door, thinking it natural for
the child to stray that way, she hastened in that direction.

We have said that Mr. Smith had his virtues as well as weaknesses;
and, of course, his wife was not "_totally_ depraved," in the sense in
which that much-controverted term is _not_ intended by those who hold
that man is naturally sinful. And, as she had borne children, a
motherly solicitude was now awakened in her heart for Bub, and she
pressed anxiously down the path, while the deepening twilight steadily
increased the gloom that lingered in the shadows of the lofty trees.
The cart track grew less distinct as she advanced; and, as she had not
found Bub, she concluded to return and alarm the neighbors, but found
her course impeded on every side by the thick underbrush, for she had
lost the main path. With desperate efforts she pushed aside the
strong-armed boughs, and struck once more the cart track, as she
supposed; but, alas for her, she was mistaken. Her head had become
bewildered, and she was penetrating into the depths of the forest. On,
on she urged her steps, wondering that she did not come in sight of
the minister's cabin, when, to her delight, she heard a sound like the
crying of a child. Now a heavy load was lifted from her mind.

"I must be nearing the cabin," thought she; "and that's Bub;" and she
called with unusual tenderness, "Bub, Bub! Where are you?"

She listened intently, expecting a response, and heard again the same
sound, but, strangely, farther off. So she quickened her speed,
calling the boy with renewed vigor. Wearied at last in her fruitless
endeavors, she stopped to rest a moment, and collect her scattered
faculties. She was an apt calculator in money matters, and that
faculty, summoned into exercise now, convinced her that she had passed
over many times the distance needed, had she been going in the right
direction; and the horrible conclusion that she was lost in the woods
thrilled her with terror. She recollected also that there had been
stories told of late of a panther's voice being heard in those woods,
and that it sounded like the crying of a child. This increased her
fear.

While she was considering what to do in her extremity, a short, quick
bark, far in the forest behind her, succeeded by a prolonged howl, the
bloodthirsty cry of the "timber wolf,"--which, when once heard, can
never be forgotten,--broke on her ear. She had lived too long in the
wilderness not to know what that meant, and she fled with wondrous
swiftness down the path, on, on, she knew not whither. Her trembling
limbs began to fail; but again the fiendish wolf-cry resounded,
succeeded by that of another, and yet another,--showing that the call
of the first had brought others to the chase,--made her forget her
weakness, and, like a spirit, away she sped, once more, on the race
for life. The race, however, was an unequal one, and its fearful
termination was soon staring her in the face, as she heard the
ferocious creatures drawing near; when, to her relief, she saw ahead a
small, untenanted cabin. It was a shanty used by the woodsmen in the
winter while felling trees. The door was off its hinges; and, passing
swiftly in, in the agony of despair, she glanced around for a
hiding-place. But the room was equally open to the wolves as to
herself. Instantly, in a manner that seemed almost superhuman, she
passed up the side of the cabin to a beam laid for an upper floor, and
stood there, clinging, with her bony fingers to the wall, as
motionless as a marble statue, while the wolves, disappointed of their
prey, sat on the floor below, lapping their hungry jaws, and watching
her till dawn, where she was found by a party who had been searching
for her all night. She was speechless when rescued, and utterly
unable for a time to give any account of herself. Her first inquiry,
however, when she could remember what had happened, was for little
Bub.

"I guess," said one of the men, soothingly, "he has turned up all
right afore now."

But as she insisted on going to the minister's to ascertain if Bub was
safe, they assisted her there, where were assembled a number of women,
among whom was Mrs. Jones, anxious about the lost child, for no trace
of him had been discovered.

When Bub was so unceremoniously disrobed of his priestly garments by
Mrs. Smith's skinny hand, highly offended at so gross an invasion of
his rights and dignities, to console himself he determined to run home
and tell his mother of the outrage.

Now the "make of the land," back of the missionary's cabin, was much
like that near his father's, and therefore he took his way in that
direction, instead of the one Mrs. Smith had surmised. He had taken
quite a walk when he saw the stream that divided the minister's lot.
Remembering that there was a river back of his mother's cabin, he
concluded that his home was on the other side of the stream before
him. The cornstalks, too, left standing in the cleared ground
opposite, were in sight, and they resembled the corn that Tom had cut
and stacked. So he trudged up and down the bank to find a way to
cross, till he came to a tree which had been felled for that purpose,
and constituted the only bridge, the topmost boughs of which rested on
the other side, just as the stream was bridged below his father's
cabin, but upon which he had often been charged not to venture. Bub
had been so often charged on this point, and impressed with the
danger, that he did not forget it now; and, while he amused himself
with dropping sticks into the water, and watching to see them carried
along by the current, he called,--

"Mother, come, get Bub, if you don't want him drownded up."

And, as his mother did not make her appearance, he shouted for Sarah,
till, as it was getting dusk, he felt afraid to linger longer, and
mounted the tree. It was a dizzy height above the water, and Bub's
curly pate would whirl whenever he glanced below; so, as he could not
walk steadily, he sat down, and tried to hitch along as he had seen
Sarah do. This was not much better for him, and he began creeping on
all fours; and, with many an admonitory slip, which served to make him
the more careful, he had got nearly across, when he fell, holding his
breath from fright. Fortunately, however, he had reached the lower
limbs, and the friendly branches held him until he was able to regain
the trunk of the tree; and ere long his little feet pressed _terra
firma_.

The cultivated ground was not fenced next the river, the bank being
sufficiently steep to keep out stray cattle, and Bub found some
difficulty in scaling it; but as he was hungry for supper, and had
something of a will of his own, despite his short legs and frequent
tumbles, at last he succeeded. And, wandering around in the cornfield,
vainly seeking his mother's cabin, baffled in his efforts, and finding
that crying was of no avail, tired, frightened, and dispirited, he
leaned his head against a clump of cornstalks, and, falling gently
from the support to the soft soil, he dropped asleep as the darkness
came on.

But where was Tom? When he returned from doing the errands, he was
surprised at not finding either Mrs. Smith or Bub at the minister's,
and was standing undecided what to do, when the clergyman drove up.
Tom immediately stated his perplexity.

"You don't suppose the woman went home, leaving Bub here alone, and
the child has strayed away?" suggested Mrs. Payson, apprehensively.

"I scarcely think a woman of her age would be so imprudent," replied
her husband. "She may, however, have gone to the village, and taken
the child with her for safe keeping. It would be well, Tom, to go down
and see."

Tom was hurrying along, when a lad called out,--

"Did the old woman find Bub?" and he related how she came there in
search of him. This startled Tom, and, hastening back, he told Mr.
Payson what he had heard.

"Perhaps, then," said the minister, "the old lady got tired of waiting
for me, and took Bub home with her. You may take the team and ride
over there."

Finding that Mr. Smith had not seen his wife, Tom at once concluded
that there must be something seriously wrong; and he said,--

"I was told at the village that your wife was there, trying to find
Bub. It may be they are both lost in the woods. Now, if you will get
the settlers about here together, I will rouse the villagers, and we
will make a search."

We have already described the finding of the lost woman.

The ground on the side of the river next to the minister's cabin had
been looked over repeatedly, and no one seemed to think it possible
that the child had crossed the river, and the conclusion came to be
general that he had either been carried off by a wild beast, or fallen
into the water, and been drowned; and preparations were made for
dragging the stream for the body, when one of the party saw a bit of
cloth, which Tom recognized as torn from Bub's dress, flaunting from a
twig on the tree-bridge.

"He must be on the other side!" cried Tom; and, with new hope, the
party rushed to explore the field, shouting his name.

"Here I be!" answered a childish voice; and they found him seated on
the ground, composedly picking the kernels from an ear of corn, the
channels which the tears had ploughed on his unwashed cheeks being the
only evidence of the sorrows through which he had passed; and he said,
with the air of one whose feelings had been wounded by undeserved
neglect,--

"I hasn't had any dinner."

Some theologians tell us that the sinful should never be addressed
through their fears; that love can only reform the erring. Perhaps
Mrs. Smith was unlike the rest of the race; but the terrors of that
night wrought a change in her; and Mr. Payson was surprised one day by
Mr. Smith's calling at his cabin with a fine quarter of beef, saying,
as he lugged it in,--

"I've been killing an ox, elder; and wife thought, if you wouldn't be
offended, that I'd better bring you down a piece;" adding, as he rose
to go, "Here's that due-bill that you gave me for the improvements on
the ten acres. Wife says you've paid enough on it; so I've receipted
it, and will call it square, if you will. And, by the way, when you
are out of butter, just send over to our house; we can spare you a few
pounds, now and then, just as well as not."




CHAPTER XII.

FIRE AND FLOOD.


The sum which had been pledged by the settlers was not sufficient for
the support of the missionary's family; and although the treasurer
exerted himself to the utmost, he could only collect a portion of what
was due from those whose names were on the subscription paper. No one
felt the inconvenience of this more than the clergyman's wife. She was
a good manager, and had a wonderful faculty for making "one dollar go
as far as three, and getting up meals out of nothing," as her husband
often remarked. But it must be confessed, that with the keen appetites
brought to them on the wings of the prairie winds, the little
household sometimes rose from the scantily-furnished table hungry for
more.

Mr. Payson, under these circumstances, would comfort her with
anticipations of future abundance. They knew, indeed, that most of the
settlers had newly arrived, and had everything to buy, as they had not
been long enough settled to raise anything from the ground. But a
year had now elapsed, and many acres of the rich soil had been turned
over and planted, and there was prospect of abundant returns. The
missionary, being unaccustomed to farming, and wishing to devote his
energies, as far as practicable, to the spiritual interests of his
growing charge, had let out his tillable ten-acre lot to a neighbor,
to be cultivated on shares, reserving a little spot for himself, which
he had planted to early potatoes, and a good variety of garden
vegetables. As the one who carried on the rest of the piece was an
intelligent and experienced farmer, and had facilities for the work in
the way of teams and men, the clergyman felt that he might reasonably
calculate on a supply of corn and wheat, to which crops the ground had
been devoted. And nowhere was there promise of a larger yield than on
that quick and productive river bottom. The corn grew to a prodigious
height, crowded with mammoth ears, and the wheat emulated the corn;
while the squash and pumpkin vines conducted as if on a race to see
which would beat in the number and size of their fruit; and Mr.
Payson's pet sorghum--a species of sugar-cane--shot up to a marvellous
perfection. It is true that a neighbor's unruly cattle had broken into
the enclosure a number of times; and a contrary sow, with her lively
family of eleven, had also made sundry plundering raids, causing the
minister considerable trouble in driving and keeping out the
intruders; but he had already a fine supply of seasoned oak rails
under way for perfecting the fences; and he cheerily said to his
wife,--

"Another year, and I'll defy the unruliest animals in the settlement
to steal an ear of corn or a potato from my lot."

Summer had now faded into late autumn, and one day the farmer, who had
charge of the field, called at Mr. Payson's, looking very dejected.

"Elder," said he, "our farming this year is going to be losing
business."

"Why, what's the matter?" asked the clergyman.

"You see," he replied, "most of the settlers, like myself, came from a
warmer climate than this. We were told also that the growing season
was as long here as there, and brought our choicest seed with us. But
there is not time for it to ripen; and our corn will not do to grind,
nor will it keep, it is so green. It is a great disappointment to me;
but most of the neighbors are in the same situation."

Words cannot describe what sad tidings these were to the missionary.

"The wheat is good--is it not?" he inquired.

"Yes; but you know there was little sown, as the ground was best
adapted to corn."

So it turned out that more was realized from the half acre cultivated
by the missionary, notwithstanding the old farmer laughed at his city
style of doing things, than from the nine and a half acres besides.
And the year of plenty had to be deferred for another twelvemonth.

That eighty acres!--how much comfort the missionary and his wife took
in the thought that it was, or rather soon would be, theirs! How many
times they admired its pleasant, rolling aspect, and weighed its
prospective value! And the pretty grove near the cabin, with its
straight-growing trees--what cosy walks they had with the children in
its leafy shade! What enjoyment in noting the progress made in
clearing out the underbrush and trimming the trees of superfluous
branches!

"If the place was only paid for," said the husband one day, "I should
be glad. Let me see. Eighty acres, at one dollar and twenty-five cents
an acre,--the government price,--would be one hundred dollars. I think
I'll act upon Mr. Jones's suggestion, and sell some of the timber
across the river, and pre-empt immediately. I have been offered thirty
dollars an acre for the privilege of cutting off the wood, and, at
that rate, three and a half acres would be more than enough."

So the sale was effected, and, with the hundred dollars in his pocket,
the clergyman started one morning on horseback for the Land Office,
thirty-seven miles distant. A horseback ride across a Minnesota
prairie is highly exhilarating, and both horse and rider were in good
spirits. Seemingly half borne on by a sweeping prairie wind, Mr.
Payson reached his destination in some five hours, in season for an
early tea; and the next morning he was conducted to the Land Office by
a lawyer acquaintance, and, with a witness at hand to prove what he
affirmed, stated, under oath, that he had, on the land he wished to
pre-empt, a cabin and other improvements to the amount that the law
required; and then, having paid his hundred dollars, he started
towards home with a light heart.

The day became dark and cloudy; and, as there was only a faint cart
track across the prairies, the minister found, in the course of the
afternoon, that he had lost his way. There were no cabins at which he
could retrieve his error, and, after many vain endeavors to find the
track, he let his horse take his own course; and, carrying his master
under low-branched trees and through thorny thickets, across a swamp,
he brought him out at last by a much shorter route than he had taken
in going, on the farther bank of the river, near the town.

As the clergyman neared the village, he noticed heavy volumes of smoke
ascending. Then he saw Mr. Palmer with a force of men busily engaged
in checking a fire that was careering through the bushes. There was a
wall of flame between him and them. Striking the road, he dashed
through the glowing boundary; and Mr. Palmer, beckoning to him,
said,--

"We have rather bad news to tell you, though not so bad as it might
have been. A fire commenced near your place yesterday afternoon, and
came near burning the town."

"A fire there!" ejaculated the minister. "How did it start?"

"I cannot stop to tell you," said his bachelor friend; "but your wife,
when you get home, will tell you all about it. Had it not been for
her, we should have been swept away."

What a sight met the clergyman's eye as he came into the town! The
entire area, before so like a lawn, looked as if the contents of a
large ink-pot had been spread over it. He was relieved, however, to
see that his cabin and the other houses were still standing; but his
wife met him with a depressed bearing quite in contrast to her usual
sprightly manner. It so struck to his heart to see how badly she felt,
that--although his glance from the saddle showed that the flames had
not spared his beloved grove, and had consumed the rails, of which he
had been so proud, and spoiled many a promising tree--with a desperate
endeavor, he set about comforting her.

"O, this is nothing," said he--"nothing at all! Consider what it would
have been had the cabin taken fire, and you and the children been in
danger."

"Which would have been the case," she added, "had not our quick-moving
town owner, Mr. Caswell, come to the rescue with his usual energy, at
the head of a force of men and teams, bringing with them hogsheads of
water, and pails, with which to throw it upon the fire. You have
reason to thank them; for they worked as I never saw men work
before."

"But how did the fire commence?" he asked.

"Why, you see," said she, "after you left, I said to the children,
'Father's gone to the Land Office to buy the land; and now we'll stir
around, and see how nice we can make everything look by the time he
gets back.' Well, you know how unsightly the chips looked around the
house, and which you had not had time to remove. So we went to work
raking them up into little heaps. While we were thus employed, we
heard the report of a gun in the bushes near by. The morning, you
recollect, was quite calm; but just as the gun was fired, a gust of
wind swept over the place, carrying with it some burning wadding that
alighted in a dry log some rods away. Before I could get there, the
inflammable wood was afire, and from that other sparks had been borne
on, and at once had kindled flames in a number of different places.
Seeing that it was impossible to arrest the progress of the
conflagration, I sent Helen to the nearest neighbor's to give the
alarm, and, as I have already said, by the help of those that came,
our cabin was barely saved, and the neighbors had to fight hard to
preserve their own dwellings."

Each day after that the missionary would walk about his blackened
domain, pondering the uncertainty of all sublunary things, about which
he had so often preached, his wife scrutinizing his disconsolate face
the while, and he repeating, with an emphasis that showed he was
saying it for his own benefit as much as hers,--

"O, it's nothing at all--nothing at all; and as for those few
rails,"--as he kicked over the burnt fragments with a melancholy
look,--"they're not of much account, for the piece over the river is
pretty well fenced, after all; luckily, the fires didn't touch them,
and we have them safe for another year."

One afternoon, a few days later, as Mr. Payson was in his attic study
absorbed, an unwonted darkness fell upon the page before him; then a
heavy peal of thunder succeeded. It was one long, continuous roll, for
an hour or more, without pause, and the rain poured down as he never
saw it in any shower east; it seemed as if the heavy clouds were
literally emptying their contents upon prairie and forest, while flash
followed flash of vivid lightning. Throughout the whole night it
rained, and the next day, and the next; and, were it not for the
ancient promise, one might have thought that a second flood was to
sweep the inhabitants of the world away. About midnight of the third
day of the terrible storm, the family at the missionary's cabin were
awakened by wild shoutings in the village below.

"What do you suppose is the matter?" asked Mrs. Payson.

"Nothing serious, I think," said her husband. "As the town site is
rolling and descends towards the river, it is probable that the high
water has come up into some of the yards and gardens, and perhaps has
invaded some of the settlers' pig-pens and hen-coops, and the
neighbors are working in the rain and darkness to save their live
stock."

The sun came out next morning like "a bride-groom from out his
chamber, rejoicing as a strong man to run his race," flooding the
fields with light, as the clouds had flooded them with water,
revealing the destruction which the tempest had caused. It appeared
that the river, a short distance up stream from the town, had become
obstructed by dead trees, and brush, and loosened soil, until a heavy
body of water had accumulated, when, the impediment suddenly giving
way, the water rushed with tremendous power, inundating a wide extent
of ground, and sweeping away everything movable in its path. Many
cabins were flooded, sleepers being awakened by the water dashing
against their beds, while articles of furniture were floating about in
the room. It was this that caused the outcries that Mr. Payson had
heard.

The Jones's cabin had been well chosen for safety on ordinary
occasions; but, on the night in question, Tom was awakened by
something cold touching his hand; for, in throwing it out of bed in
his sleep, it had been immersed in the water, which had entered the
room, and was rapidly rising. Shouting to his mother and the children,
he struck a light, and leaped into the water; and, taking Bub in his
arms, and directing the movements of the rest, he hurried them out of
the door, away from the river bank, as fast as they could go. How
providential it was that he should have, in his restlessness, dropped
his hand over the bedside! for scarcely had they ascended a swell of
ground beyond the field when the cabin went down with a crash, and
the fragments, whirling about and jarring together, disappeared from
view.

They were now poorer than ever; but, cold and wet, with the lightning
flashing about them, in the pouring rain, they clung together for
mutual protection, while they took their toilsome and difficult way
from the scene of danger.

There was an unoccupied shanty in the edge of the town farthest from
the river, and to that Tom led the terrified and shivering group. It
was three full hours before they reached it; and then they had nothing
but the bare walls and the bare floor, with the shelter over their
heads, for a resting-place, where, the next day, the missionary found
them as he went about assisting to succor the sufferers; and, at his
suggestion, from the scanty stores of the settlers about, their cabin
was fitted out with eatables and housekeeping articles.

During all this time Mr. Payson had been so occupied in benevolent
labor among those whose cabins had been flooded, that it had not
occurred to him that he had sustained any damage; but, after the
subsiding of the waters, as he took his way down his favorite path
through the grove, he saw that the waters had borne away every vestige
of fencing around his cherished ten-acre lot. The highest part of the
fence had been under water many feet on that calamitous night, and
with the loss of the rails had gone down another of the earthly props
on which he had leaned for his daily bread in the wilderness.




CHAPTER XIII.

THE INDIAN LODGE.


Spring on a north-western prairie. What a glorious scene! Suddenly,
you scarcely know when, the snow has disappeared, leaving the long,
dead grass lying in matted unsightliness, and you would think it was
dead forever; but soon, in little clusters of from three to seven, you
see dotting the landscape a purple flower, a tough, membranous, hairy
sheath protecting each floweret from the chilling winds, for it opens
at once to your gaze. Then, as the weather waxes genial, the blossoms
shoot up from their hirsute guardianship, and nod brightly in the
breeze. It is the "spring beauty,"--as the frontier folk call it,--the
first vegetation of the season, presenting the phenomenon of rich
blooming flowers, while yet the lifeless turf shows no signs of
vitality. But life is there; for at once, as if by magic, the whole
expanse is green with verdure, growing with marvellous rapidity,
decked with flowers.

                   "Garden without path or fence,
                   Rolling up its billowy blooms."

Then you rise some soft morning, and the air is vocal with the cooing
of myriad birds. If you are just from the east, you will think that
thousands of turtle doves are announcing that spring has come. They
seem close about you; but you cannot see them. They are not in the
groves near by; you follow the sounds through the waving prairie grass
for a long distance, and you find them not, and will be surprised when
your western friend tells you that these are the voices of the prairie
hens, miles away, holding their annual convention, the queer cuckooing
not being loving sounds, but notes of war--abortive attempts at
crowing, which the rival males set up as they prepare to do batt

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