St. Landry democrat., 1884-11-08
MY QUARTER SECTION.

We were friends. We had taught to-
:gether in one of our ward schools for
six years. Together we had defied the
petty tyranny of the man whom an in
scrutable Providence had placed over
us in the capacity of principal. To-
gether we had prepared the Spreads
and "BloWonts. generic names for the
official show of examination papers,
drawings, etc., that are exhibited to the
world of admiring parents as the indi-
yidual and collective result of the gem
Jus of their Individual and collective
progeny. In lifelong vacations we had
gone on various excursions together,
read the most approved educational
and literary works, and, in short, win
tered it and summered it together for
six long years. Of course we had
planned always to live together and
keep the most delightful of old maid s
halls, and-weli, we were all that is
meant by the term intimate friends.
1 think it was in March of 1882 that
the idea struck us. I do not remember
what paper it was that illumined our
darkness; however, that is of no conse-
quence. 1t was wet March morning
and / was standing in the hall of the
Sixth Ward school house, trying to dry
my dragged skirts at the register and
feeling well, as though it would be
eminently safe for the future candidates
for the Presidency to cultivate the for
eign accomplishment of walking Span
ish that day, when Miss Arabella
Thompson came in with wet umbrel-
la in one hand and paper in the other
'Thompy was always funny 1t would
have taken a veritable deluge OF forty
days and forty nights to have made.
her willing to acknowledge that it was
bad weather. She came IN smiling
with bright ''Good-morning," and,
without waiting for me to air my elo-
-quence on the subject, she began:
See here, my dear, have the
brightest plan you ever heard OF for our
vacation and she proceeded to unfold
her paper and her plan. The paper
contained a glowing account of the
opening splendors of the mighty Ter
.rftory Of Dakota, and the unparalleled
chances of making a fortune and gain
ing home by going out to the vast.
unoccupied prairies and taking up
claim, just picking it up, you know,
so easy and comfortable. Then fol-
lowed a statement of the laws regard
ing the acquiring of the various kinds
of claims, homestead, pre-emption and
timber claims.
'.You just go out there, enter your
claim, put up sod house, live in it six
months, prove up, pay S1.25 an acre,
and you have your claim to live on or
to sell.
"Just like Old Jack Means, inter-
,rupted.
make heaps an gobs O money, all out
% Congress land.n
tBut, / objected, syou forget that
the school year is nine months, and our
worthy forefathers in arranging the
year have, with their usual want OF
foresight, planned for only twelve
months. Where are you going to get
the other three2n
But no objection that could urge
had any weight with Thompy, for,
though am much older than she, she
is much better looking than ], and, con-
sequently, very headstrong. So she
overruled every objection that | could
bring forward, and, arranging with the
Board of Education for a six months
vacation, said we would 60.
The upshot of the whole matter was
that / meekly yielded, and our Moons
and recesses for the next three months
were spent in making calculations as to
what it would cost us to carry out our
plans, what supplies in the way Of
books, provisions, ETC., we should take
with us, and how we should dress,
was for dressing in bloomer costume
and carrying a few revolvers, but
Thompv would hear of neither. She
said there was no use in our looking