The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1875-10-28
THE PIONEER BOYS.

SO long ago as it takes for little boys
to grow great men, it was not so easy to
live in Nebraska as it is now, when the
great land commissioner of the great
railroads hangs buffalo's head in every
depot in Boston, to show the world how
much more delightful is the society of
buffaloes than the society of Bostonians.
When John, and Susan, and the
children, Titus and Tom O. Shanter, and
Betty, and the new baby came to Ne
braska, that plucky young State was, for
the most part, an ugly, bowling wilder
ness.
In the thick of the wilderness Mr.. and
Mrs. John Jacobs dug out for themselves
home. Literally, they dug it out with
their own hands. Susan was tough
little woman, with stout hands and a
stout heart, and she dug too. think,
if the truth must be told, she rather en-
joyed leaving Titus and Tam with the
other babies-there's no guessing how
much care one baby will take of another
till you've tried-and taking an ak to
help her husband fell trees and cut I'M
derbrush, or taking hoe to hoe her
row in tho darling little garden, out of
which they meant to make a living, if
they died for it.
1t was only because they meant to, so
very hard, fancy, that fhny nnada tho
living without dying for it. 1t was al
most worse at first than coachman's
wages in Mother England. There was
the newness, and there was the home
sickness, and there was the distance
from the market, and there was the bit
ter cold, and there was the blighting
heat, and always there were the babies,
and besides, there were the Indians.
John, and Susan, and Tam, ard Titus,
and Betty, and the new baby, and the
newest new baby (when it came along) got
along pretty we'll with everything else /;
but it wasn't pleasant to see an Indian
come walking by with tomahawk just
as you were quietly sitting down to sup
per and they got a little tired of sleep
ing with one ear open, listening for the
awful, echoing sound of the cruel In
dian war-cry; and whatever might be
urged against life as a coachman in
England, at least it was life in which
ones attention wasn't called so frequent
ly to the top of ones head.
" Mine is fairly sore," laughed Susan,
"with thinking how it will feel to be
scalped. I'll have a gun," she said. So
she had gun. "Tll be good shot,"
she said. And quickly she became as
good a shot as John. And when John
was at work in the woods or the garden,
Susan gathered her brood about her in
the house, and, lynx-eyed as sentry,
and fne-eared as a mother, mounted
guard.
Now, there came time when nobody
lad seen any Indians for so long a while
that evon the wise heart of the mother
forgot to feel keenly about anything in
this world. If we do not see it An alb
sent duty, or an absent friend, or an alb
sent terror-all alike they grow a triae
dim or dull.
And one day, when Titus and Tam
said "Ju3t one gallop on the prairie,
mother, with old jerusalem" their
mother said : "Well, L don't know"
and their father said 81 guess I'd let
'em = aud the lynx eyes, and the keen
ears, and the wise head of the mother
said her not nay-and so it happened.
Old Jerusalem was the big white
horse; the faithful, ugly, grand old
horse, that took steps almost as long as
a kangaroo's, and was more afraid of an
Indian than Titus and Tam.
So Susan kissed Titus goodbye ten
derly-for he was the good boy of those
remarkable twins-and that was why
they called him Titus and kissed Tam
a little more tenderly still, because he
wasn't so good as Titus, and so had got
called Tam and she said: "Hold on
tight - and John came out and said
"Come home pretty soon = and Tam
got ON first, and Titus got on behind
him, ard Jerusalem gave one great
bound, and away they shot, clinging
with shining bare feet to Jerusalem's
white bare back-for they were magnifi-
cent little riders, seven years old now,
aud brave as cubs.
Susan stood Watching them after
John had gone back to his work-stood
watching long after they had swept away
into the great, green, beautiful sea OF
the treacherous prairie grass.
Uneasy9 Not exactly. Sorry she had
let them goa Hardly that. She was
sensible little woman, and having done
what she thought was right, had no idea
of being troubled by it, till the time
came. But still she stood watching, her
hand above her eyes-this way-and she
did not go into the house till the newest
new baby had cried at least five minutes
at the top of its new little lungs.
Titus and Tam and Jerusalem got
pretty far out on the beautiful, terrible
prairie. How beautiful it was 1t did
not seem as if it ever could be terrible if