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Show ' ) THE JORDAN JOURNAL, MIDVALE, UTAH • s I B7 ROBERT STEAD Author of ••The Cow- Puncher."" ••The Homesteaders•• Cop:vrhtht b:r Robert Stead THE HOMESTEADS SYNOPSIS.-Lured by hll tour;rear-old playmate, Jean Lane, Frank Hall, aged six, ventures on the forbidden wall of a dam, In a small Ontario town. He falls Into the water and Is •aved from possible death by clinging to Jean's outstret~hed arms. Next day Jean Informs him that because of their adventure of the day betore he Is In duty bound to marry her. He agrees when they are "grownups." With Jean's brother John, also aged six, Frank begins school. Two years later they are joined by Jean and Frank's sister Marjorie. A little later Jean confides to Frank, in verse, her hope of some day becoming "Mrs. Hall." He accepts the "proposal." Frank Is fourtee~! when his mother dies. The boys are eighteen when John's !ather Is killed in an accident. Two years later Frank's father and John's mother 'are married. Dissatisfied with conditions, and ambitious, the two boys make plans to go to Manitoba and "homestead," the girls agreeing to go with t)lem. They set out. At Regina they meet "Jake," who agrees to find them satisfactory homesteads. CHAPTER 111-Conti~ued -3- Jake threw a querying stress on the word a!ste1·s, but it was against all nature to be offended at him. Had we .resented his remark he would have laughed our seriousness out of court. But we decided to see some of the adjoining sections. Sixteen appealed to Jack. We could ba ve taken the west half, and so, working together, we would have had a mile furrow. The gully also touched Sixteen, and would have given us the same advantages as Jake claimed for the sections be had recommended. However, we found him very fixed ln his preference for Fourteen and Twenty-two, and finally we accepted his arguments, and set out to make a more detailed survey of thl! land. The gully angled between the two quarters. taking scarce an acre off either of them. A jolly stream, brown with the grass of Its banks, gurgled along its bed. I knelt down to try the water; there was the taste of snow, but there was also the harder, sharper note of spring water mingled with it. "Runnin' water like that is worth a thousand dollat's on any man's farm," Jake declared. "An' come up this way. Wait till I show you somethin'." The ''something" proved to be a widening in the valley, where was a consideral;lle growth of small willows and poplars. "Fence posts and firewood," said Jake, "an' on railroad land, too, that won't be sold fer years. You'll have 'em all cut down before then. That timber's worth another thousand, or half that, anyway." I thought of the great pine back on the old farm In Ontario, and the "timber" looked to me like gads and switches. None of it was tall en{)ugh to reach out ot the l!ttle valley and show "a green tip to the bald surface of the prairies. But we' were not In Ontario now; we were In a land where even a three-Inch tree was not to be despised. "An' here'!! somethin' more," he said, setting an example for 1JS by walking stealthily on his pudgy legs through the clumps of willows. At the other end of the wooded space we found a litlle pond opening out, and a score of wild ducks drowsing placidly on its smooth surface. "An Englishman," Jake remarked, when we had turned back, "would take this farru fer the duck pond alone. They're the dangdest people ever was fer wantin' to kill somethin'. ' lie don' care if· his farm is all sand or wallows, 's long as there's somethin' to shoot, the Englishman don't. But fer a Yankee it mus' be every acre wheat land. \He don't care fer no thin' but the long 1 green." Jake paused as though to thin!; over these national characterIstics. ''Let's find a badger hole," he continued. and we had little trouble in toeating one. ''Now look at this. This hoh! goes down five, six, seven feet, IIIHYhe more, in the ground. Look what his nilJs has kicked out. Fine, loamy, sand~· soil, not too light an' not l•)O slicks, all the way down. That ;;:oes plumh to kingdom come. Course, the top is a little uarll:er, on acc{)unt o' rl!e grass roots, \Jut it's all soil. .!'\one o' yel' down-east three inchcs-o'-muckan'-a-rock-lloYtom to that." Jal•e took a fresh chew of tobacco nnr11ooked out over the greenish-brown prairie. "I have It figgered out like this," he went on, "an' my fig-gers is right; this lanu is worth more than any gold mine between hell an' Wlloopup. When you take the gold out o' a mine you ain't got nothln' left, but you can take gold out o' this mine next year, an' the y•r after, an' the year after, fer ever an' e,·er. an' there's still as much there • as wher you started-it you farm it ril:'ht.'' ,.ur inspecnon satisfied us 1n every Jake explained, as we alre:Hiy [mew, that we would have to nnild separutt> shacks on the t.wo quarter<~, to COHiply with the taw about 1'11".'1"" • on '"e luna r-lalmcd. "But Y'"" <·an h111lt' on!' stu\>!~ 111 the gully .~artirnlar. l'er the live stock," be added; "the government don' care where they sleep, jus' so's the homesteader himself Is sufficiently oncomfort'ble." We smiled over his Interpretation of regulations which, as we knew, were necessary to prevent the wholesale blanketing o:l' the free lands by people who had no intention o! llYlng on them. "Now we better pick a second an' a third choice, jus' in case someone sl!ps In ahead o' us on this," said Jake, and we spent the afternoon driving about and making fresh locations. Much of the land was already taken up, Jake told us, and although there were as yet no signs of settlement we would see a great change by fall. We camped on Fourteen that night, and Jack and I were filled with plans for our shacks and our stable. The shacks would be up on the prairie level, on opposite sides o! the gully, in full view of each ot11er, and about a hu:p.dred yards apart. The stable wou1cl be In the gully, close to the road allowance, sheltered from the winds, and convenient to water. The crossing of the stream was passable, but would stand Improvement. Early in the morning we started back, and after three full days in the democrat we found ourselves one evening swinging up the now strangely familiar streets of Regina. The raw prairie city of 1904 already almost seemed like home. We were llke travelers returning from strange lands to scenes of old recollections. We bad been away just seven days, but In that time wt! had swung far out Into the universe; we had drunk of the air of God's new creation; we had been strangllly conscious of the company of our sonls. In tire morning we went with Jake to the land office; Fourteen and Twenty-two In the township where we had decided to locate were still open, and we had no dJ'fficulty in filing our claims. We returned tr. the stable' with Jake. "What's the damag~?" Jack demanded. Jake expectorated profusely, spread his feet, and scratched his head. "Seven times seven is forty-nine; fifty dollars fer locatin' makes ninety-nine; I guess she's ninety,nlne, boys; gosh d:.un it, we might have made it a hunditd." We paid him the ninety-nine and Jack tluew in another. "We'll make it an even hundred," he said. "Come out and see us when you get a chance; we may have a bite of fried coyote f•)r on the dollar. Buying on our own judgment we would probably get less than that." So It was arranged that Jake was to be ouf purchasing agent, with a sort of gentleman's understanding that he might cheat us a little In consideration of his l!erv!ces in preventing other people from cheating us a great deal. The arrangement. I believe, worked out to our advantage. Jake undoubtedly bought our supplies tor less than we could have bought them, even after providing his secret commissions. Moreover, he knew what was essential and what was not, and be saved us valuable time. When at last our outfit was complete It presented a picturesque and somewhat pathetic turnout. On our wagon we had bu!lt a temporary - box of boards, and on this were plied our trunks and personal effects, a plow, a stove, food supplies, a tent, a crate with hens and another with a young pig, while over all roosted, if I may use the term, /.he two girls. The cow we tied behind, while Jack and I walked as a sort of ttank guard on either side of th~ oxen. These two phlegmatic creatures rejoiced in the names of Buck and Bright, and stoically pursued their destiny at a pace ot two and a half mlles an hour. Their resignation in adversity was sublime: In fact, we soon found it Impossible to Invent any adversity to which they were not resigned. With such an outfit our progress was much slower than it had been wlth Jake and his "flyln' 1!-nts," but it was an experience of unbounded freedom and delight. The days held bright and warm, as It was still too early for the May rains; the nights were cold and starry, with a tang ot frost toward morning; the dawns were a rush of color, and the sunsets Indescribable. At nights we pitched the tent and made down blanket!! for the girls, but Jack and I slept under the stars. We were roughing tt, but every muscle In our young bodies was vibrating with the tense new Hfe of the open. When tl1e girls called us to breakfast ot fried bacon and potatoes and steaming :\'OU.'' "Oh, I'll be along, I'll be along," ~aid Jake. "I'll blow out there often.'' We shook hands with Jake and turned a .vay with a strunge feeling of cutting ourselves adrift. We had not known how quickly an attachment may grow-on the prairies. CHAPTER IV It we thought we had fin!shea with Jake it was evidence that we still had much to learn about our guide's bustness qualities. Jake had a follow-up peculiarly his own, and that afternoon he came steaming into our presene<l liS we sat In the bare lounge room of the hotel, making a list of necessities on the back of an envelope. "I been chasln' yvu fellows all over hellangone," he announced, with a profuse expeciorut!!)n to facilitate speech. Race Across the Prairies. ~ "I got a fistful o' luck fer you. Chap down at the stables-trouble o' some coffee and milk from our traveling kind or other-wants to sell his dairy we were more happy and more horses; as pretty a team o' bays as hungry than anything we had ever ever switched a tail in fiytime, an' I known to be possible. can put you next." And the girls! We saw them grow"That's good of you," said Jack, "but !ng browner every day, but with their we've just figured tll!!'lt we can't afford sunburn they seemed to take on a horses. It's a case of horses and no strange new charm and competence. cow, or oxen and a cow, and the vote They treated the whole experience as at the moment stands unanimous for a high adventure, and after cramped milk to our; porridge, even at the risk hours on the top of "the ark" they of our characters. They tell us that would race like wild things across the even a good man swears when he prairies, their hair flying in the breeze, drives oxen." and a vagrant wind tossing the skirts "That's wrong," Jake corrected. "A ctbout their shapely limbs. They had taken the precaution to good man don' drive oxen. He may be good before he drives them, but not · provide themselves with sunbonnets, while he drives them, nor immejut but the prairie sun is an impetuous afterward. It's agin human nature. lover, and their cheeks and lips showed I've seen profanity on some o' the ox the mark of his caresses. lie was a trails o' this country so thick it lay rival who did not pique my jealousy, jus' like a fog on the prairie. Oxen for In his embrace I saw the woman has started more fellows on the wrong Jean bursting forth from the bud of road than any other critturs-'<:ept girlhood in a beauty that kept my women." l;>lood a-tingle. There was j11st one note that both"Well, we're going to take a chance with both," was .Tack's answ!'r. "You ered me. It was sounded a day or two don't happen to have a hard-up friend after we left Regina in some covert who would part with a yoke of oxen, remark which Marjorie muue about for a consideration, do you?" Jean's Mounted Policeman. It seemed Jake scratched his tousled hair med- that while Jack and I lJUd been away itatively. ''Come to thinl\ o' It, I be· land hunting the girls, too, had been lleve 1 do," he said at length. "I jus' doing a little prospecting. Regina was recommember a chap who was talkin' the headquarters of the mounted poo' selliu his oxen t'other day. As lice, and the fine figures of these young sleek a yoke as ever switched a tail in riders of the plains with their scarlet fi~'time; gentle an' strong, an' speedy tunics and trim gold-ribboned riding as a scairt rabbit. I reckon I could trousers and clanking spurs have get you a special price on 'em, pre- tumed more heads than Jean's before tendin' It was meself that was buy!nt.'· •llld since. It seems the girls were ''And a cow," I ventured. ''Havt' .valking along a business 13tt·eet when you a cow on your bargaJ,n list?" they saw a young policeman coming at "Jake has everything on his bargain 1 short distnnce, and they happened list that we may happen to need," said ro stop to admire something In a win· .Tack. "Everything from a cow to tl low while he appt·oached. He also cookstove. It's all right, Jake; Wi• .;topped to admire, and Marjorie said don't mind your little graft so long a> 'omethlng-whlch Jean woul,d not have you play the game half fairly, and seP r!oue-and a conversation started up, that we get at least fifty cents' worth und the policeman seemed to prefer Jean, perhaps because she had uot spoken first. At any rate he saw them safely home, and dall!ed over his responslbll!ty and the gate post until they said tlley must go in. He called the next night and wanted to take them to a "show," but they would not go; at any rate, Jean would not go. "But you went walking with him," Marjorie challenged. "He asked you, too," said Jean, her pretty face coloring. "You started with us, and then went back." "I saw how the land lay, or the wind blew, or whatever It was. I had nothIng to do at home, but I knew I would be busier there than out walking with ,You and your pollceman." "Marjorie I liow can you-" "And he told her he would call on her after we were settled." "He did no such thing l He asked me where we were going to settle, and I told him I didn't know, and he said he hoped he would be patroll1ng there. lie's going to be aent out from barrack,s soon, and he said It would be safer for me--for us-if someone were patrolling our district." "Not for you, dear," said Marjorie, meal)!ngly, and there was a little sting in her words which brought me Into action. "I believe you're jealous, Marjorie,'' I said, in tones intended to be severe. •• And aren't you 7" she retorted. "You ought to be." The truth Is, I was. Jean had always belonged to me so absolutely that I had never thought o! the posstblllty of a rival. Even now I did not think of such a thing seriously. It was trUEl that there was no engagement between us, unless the word of. a man of six and a woman of four can be taken as binding, but I looked on Jean as mine, nevertheless, and I resented the action of the mounted policeman In sooking her acquaintance. I resented, too, the tact that she bad gone walking with him, and I told her so at the first opportunity. It came that afternoon. Jean said she was tired riding, and got doWn to walk, on my side of the wagon. We trudged along for some distance In silence, save tor my occasional words of rebuke and exhortation to the oxen. "You're cross at me," she said at length. ''I'm not." Why 1 said th,.t I can't imagine. I was, and wanted her to know lt. "I didn't mean to offend you," she went on. "Marjorie was just u little bit-spiteful." "I know she was," I agreed. "But you shouldn't have gone walking with him." "Why?" "He was a stranger. You didn't even know hls name.'' • "I do now. It's Harold Brook. Besides, In this country, you don't have to know people's names. You just speak anyway." "Ob, do you?" I said, sarcast1ca11y. "So I see." · "Don't be cross," she coaxed. "See, I can beat you to that badger bole. One-two--three-" F!he was off like the wind. For a moment I hesitated, then joined in the race. But she had too much start, and besides, she was almost a match for me. She reached the little mound first, and as she turned she swerved a little from her course, and I happened to plunge Into her. To save herself from talllng she seized me about the neck, and her hair brushed against my face. • • • We walked back slowly, arm 1n arm, and I bad a sense o:l' being very much of a brute. . • . Jean had wound me around her little finger. There are certain thrills of accomplishment, certain epochs of develOPment, which come only once in a lifetime. One of these is when a young man writes his first check, or first turns his key in his own door, or first sees his name on an office signbo,!J.rd. But the greatest is when he first looks upon land be can call his own. True, this land was not yet ours, but 1t was pledged to us If we carried out our part of a very simple agreement, and already we had a proprietary interest In lt. We showed it to the glrls with the pride ot a mother displaying her first born. We were desperately anrlous that our cholce should be justified. We waited for their verdict, but neither spoke. "Well, what do you think of itT Jack asked at length. "It looks all right,'' said Marjorie. "I suppose It Is as gooll as any. But I don't see how you are going to tell it from othet• people's land. It's all alike." "What do you say, Jean 7" But Jean was looking at the sunset, where the Master Artist was splashing pastels of bronze and copper against a background of silver and champagne. "Wonde:rful, wonderful!" she murmured. "Fourteen Is Frank's and Twentytwo is mine,'' Jack explained. "We'll pitch the tent fot· the girls here, and !<'rank may do as he likes, but L'm going to cross the gully and sleep tonight under my own vine aud fig. tree. so to speak. My six months' residence begins tonight!" "B'ig tree!'' Marjorie e:tclaimed. "The trees around here are just about high enough to tickle your ear-when you're tylng down." '"lou haven't seen the trees yet,'' said Jack, knowingly. "Now, let's pitch camp." We dragged the tent close to the brow of the gully and pitched It on the spot where we had planned that my shack should be. We also unloaded part of our equipment so that we could mal•e use of it In the housekeep· lng operations. It was with great zest that we carried our cookstove to the Joor of the tent and Sti'Ullg up tWO or (hree lengtns or p!p~. In a rew mtm 1tes Jack app~ared from sornewhPre with all armful ot wood, and aa the dar!£.. ness settled down we gathered aboul a fire on our own farms, tor the first time In our Uves. And so we chattered on, saying noth-~ ing of moment, but feeling the great joy of possession welling in our hearts. It was a day and a night to be Uved over many a time in memory. For the first time ln our lives we were drinkIng of the wells of possession-the enchanted streams whlcl} draw men and women Into the wilderness to live and die on the outposts of civilization. · We bad finished supper, and the gray gloom of twilight was crawLing slowly up from the east when a sharp, whistl!ng rustle almost above us brought the girls to their feet with a start. "What was that!" Jean exclaimed. "It was almost like a bullet.'' "Nay, nay,'' said Jack, indulging In a very sorry joke. "It Is a ducklet." "A ducklet 7 What duck let?" "That, my dear sister, was the whistle from the wing of a wild duck, darting Into the darkness at a couple of hundred miles an hour. He had just got his eye on you.'' "More likely en the gun,'' said Jean, tor we had included a cheap shotgun among the articles considered Indispensable. "Wait until Frank gets after him.'' I was greatly flattered by Jean's wholly unwarranted confidence In my marksmanship and eager to justify it at the earliest moment. ";No time like the present," said I, picking up the gun and fill!ng my poLket with cartridges. "Besides, we hav~ a surprise to show you." So we starked out In the gathering darlmess, I going first, as became the bearer of the gun; Jean at my heels; Jack and Marjorie a little in the rear. Down the steep edge of the gully we worked, and then along by the marge of the brown snow water which rippled happily over beds of bending grass. At a short distance we came to the spot where the valley broadened out and the little grove of trees had found its place of shelter from Chinook winds In winter and prairie fir~>s ln sprlng and fall. The air was full o! the sweet scent of bursting willow buds and balm-o'-G!lead, and as we picked our steps as noiselessly as we could the slightly stirring limbs above us wrought their, d!trk tracery against the blue and starry heaven. , "Oh, Frank I You never told me of this ! How wonderful !" "Walt until you see the pond," I whispered, as one who keeps the best to the last. "We did not select Fo11rteen and Twenty-two without a rea· son.'' There was no path between the slim, close-growing trunks o:l' poplar and balm, and we had to make progress as best we could. . . . Jack and Marjorie had fallen considerably behind. Then, suddenly, the still waters of the pond burst upon our view, and at the same moment, as though the very heavens conspired to set the stage to the best advantage, a blood-red moon sent its first pinion of light sweeping down from the northeast and splashing burnt-orange and ochre across the slightly ruffied surface of the pond. We stood for a time as mortals transfixed, watching the great red globe drawing swiftly into· the blue above, until Its light painted Jean's face and mine. In the moonlight her fine features were wonderful, Irresistible. . • · We were brought to earth by a flutter and splashing In the water. Two ducks, sweeping swiftly down out or the darkness, alighted not a dozen yards In front of us; and directly In the line of light. I drew my gun to my shoulder, {lnd even as I did so 'their murmured grumbllngs, sibilant almost as the Usp of water on a gravelly shore, came to our ears, and they began to swim slowly about in graceful little circles. There was even a motlon about the head of the male, as he brought It close to that of his mate, that was surely nothing short of a caress. "Don't, Frank. don't; you mustn't I" Jean exclaimed suddenly. Her arm darted out in front of me, seized the barrel of the gun and drew It swiftly to one side. I had been taking a most deliberate aim, to justify the high opinion already referred to. but at J ean'a sudden Interference I pressed the trigger, or, as I alway~ claimed, it pulled ltselt against my finger, and went of!'. There was a loud report, and the sound o~ shot harm: lesr.ly lashing the water. "Did you get him-did you get him?'" shouted Marjorie and Jack, rushlnJ! down upon us, . "No, I didn't get him," I explained "I didn't even try to get him. I jus wanted to see how far the gun woul<i carry.u "I woulcln't let him,'' said .Tenn. "1: would have been a-just a horribll• thing to shoot one of those poor creatures, th~ very first night we weN here 1 How beautiful they were, an(l how-how loving!" She said the last word with a bashful, falling inflection that was wonderful to hear. "It's much more horrible to have no wild duck-ducklet I mean-for tomorrow's dinner,'' said Jack. ''And those cartridges cost ever so much; what is it?-three or four cems each," Marjorie remonstrated. "Wei i. let's go back.'' We returned to our camp and starteLl lo make ready for the night. But Jack, true to his promise, gathered up ht& blankets, wuded the cold stream, ani! slept under the stars of Twenty-two We had begun our "period or resi· dence.'' l Setting der these .::.:. to be the venture. jlr[ up housel\eeeing un· conditions would seem wildest sort of an ad· What next? jl , , r I; l!l!::============== L j 1<ro ~lil COliiTW u I!:D • Her Rheumatism Vanished! 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