St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1884-12-25

Coui1oSsA lTOHl faiirOau Ofnclals, hOtel
pOrters, hackmen and fellow travellers
OF course we took in all the points OF
interesAabout st. Paul and Minneapo-
lis, and We ased TO enjoy immensely
the imagiIRty sensation it would make
among OH fellow travellers if they
knew 81 our daring project, but we
never electrified them by disclosing it.
They 4carded MS as couple of inno-
cent an inOffensive teachers in searcl,
of recrt alton.
How we enjoyed the journey from
st. Paul to our destination. 1t was
here that we had our first glimpse OF
the lovely prairies, gorgeous with the
red lili.s of the north and thousand
other flowers that crested the waves of
the prSirie grass stretching away in
endless succession as far as the eve
could reach.
| ren emher distinctly the first spell
| had a sinking of the heart. 1t was
when saw, in the midst of n vast
plain, lone, forlOrn, little speck away
off tow the horizon. that was some
ones ite.S 3,Ot another dwelling in
sight il all that wIde, lonely prairie
the next was when we reached Lawns
dale and found that the city consisted
of two tents and wood shed. 1t was
evening when we passed through
Morehead and FARGO, and the luminous
balls of electric lights shining high
over the latter city looked weirdly
beautiful.
We reached our destination in the
dim twilight of summer morning.
and stopped to get breakfast and
rest little before starting on our
tour of investigation, preparatory to
taking up our claims. Somehow it
did not seem SO easy as it had at home,
and not quarter as romantic. Thompy
was as enthusiastic as ever. and when
| said that | wished | had brought u
| few trees along III my trunk to i'm
prove the landscape a little, she said
it was wilder without and what we
wanted was sunshine.
After interviewing the land agent,
and a lot more work and bother, we
| finally started over the prairie Oh an
ox-cart. The agent said he thought
he knew place we would like, where
we could have our land joining and the
| other part of the section occupied by IL
man from New York who had his fam
| lily along and his brother-in-law Did
you ever ride after an Ox-team |
hope so, for if you have you will ap-
pl leciate many privileges that you would
perhaps otherwise pass over as but
slight advantages. We moved through
the prairies (but that was ALL and
looked at the wide monotonous land
scape. After the first hour | remarked
to Thompy that thought we had bet
ter go into camp on the wagon, as we
seemed to be out as far as when we
started, but ThOmpy said she liked it.
that she was always afraid of fast
horses, and she could get as much ex.
ercise and all the scenery she wanted
| from her perch on the OX-cart. Pretty
soon she did get all the scenery she
wanted, and then that eXasperating
| girl pulled out Il microscope, and pro-
ceeded to analyze flowers, just as ag-
gravatingly cheerful us though she
were at picnic.
! Alotsg-in the afternoon we came to
the place of the man from New York,
and here we got our dinner and We're
| shown the glOrieS of sod house. We
had seen them mt Il distance before,
but nothing like this. This was II YER
| liable palace of IL sod house. with real
| windows and papered walls, with par
! titiOns of uHhleached muslin trimmed
with Turkey red, that looked very
pretty and homelike. Thompy went
into raptures over it, aud regretted
deeply that we hadn't brought some
thing along for our walls. / didn't see
as she needed to display cur ignorance
before that strange woman, but that
WAS just her all over-not bit of
proper pride.
After dinner we went with the on
team to inspect the other part of the
section, which the woman said she
hoped we would like, as she wished
we might be neighbOrS; she found it
rather lonely being eight miles from
town and no neighbors. | couldn't sec
as it made any difference where we
took up our claim it all looked alike
to me, and was beginning to think it
might prove il white elephant any
way.
We went to town to get the necessa-
ry papers and Il man to help get the
houses ready, for We were to have one
apiece, and we wanted to investigate
the little store. The woman from New
| York whose name WAS Ilerder said that
her husband and brother would do all
they could to help us, and in n short
time our houses were ready for us to
enter and take possession of our long
dreamed of claims. They didn't look
very inviting, | can tell yOu. We
could find no paper to cover the un-
slightly walls, and oun furniture was of
the scaEtiest. We could not make
both houses look inviting, so we used
mine for IL kitchen, though we consci-
entiously slept in it half the time. They
were very near together and not fan
from our neighbOrs.
When we were fairly settled and
had had Om first meal, / told Thompy
that felt like the Swiss Family Robin
son she laughed and said she didn't
see how | could feel like the whole
family without having a stable in the
house, as they always did. Now
think it shows an enviOus disposition
to always be making fun of romantic
idea just because you didn't happen tC
think of it yourself, but punished hel
= by putting my revolver in sight in q
hole which dug for it iii the wall
She dared not take it away, so she al
ways passed 10y on the other side o
the room. We got water from wei
belonging to the Herders, who tried
in every possible way to soften the
hardships of our lot, though Thompl
always pretended that there were non,
that spoiled bread, no fresh meat, no
frnit, and all the horrors of canned
goods We're fun. We got fresh vege
tables occasionally from our neighbOrs
as we had no garden, it being too lat,
to make one. When complained, i
was not pleasant, to say the least, t,
be reminded of our pilgrim mothers
r and the other pioneers. Because they
) had to eat nasty messes, is no reason
that | can see for my eating them.