Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-07-04

new country. But Alex. is wild to go,
and pa says he. will be a rich man in .
few years-that the land out there will
sell for a big price"
1t was not a very orderly school the
remainder of that day. Carrie seemed
to be in a sort of nightmare.
Could it be true? And was he going
away without coming to say goodbye to
her, and this shadow between themp
But he did, all the same. Three hor-
rible days and nights went by, and then
she saw him pass the school house or
him from Smithtown.
1t was the noon hour, and she and
| several of the larger girls were
I sitting under q spreading oak, watching
the smaller children play "ring around
the roses"
AS he passed by he swung his hat to
the children, with whom he vas afavor-
lite, and said: Goodbye, girls! good
bye, boys!" And then he was gone.
How the dreadful weeks wore by Car
RE could never tell. But they did go
by, and the end of the term came at
last-in August.
1t was three months since Alex. Hall
had gon Mr.. Parker had visited
Shutdown once during that time, and
had been astonished to have Miss We'll
ton turn her back upon him very DELHI
erately when she met him at the village
store.
He was not accustomed to this kind
of treatment from pretty girls in small
villages; for Mr.. Parker was one of the
young men who had "a sweetheart in
every port,'' and he fully resolved to
make Miss Welton his Smithtown sweet
heart; and now all his plans were upset
by the very disdainful manner of that
young lady herself.
He sought al explanation by post,
but his billet-doux was never noticed,
and he was obliged to look elsewhere
for a sweetheart to make his number
good.
The very day that school closed Car
RE received a letter from her uncle Tom.
Uncle Tom was her only neal rela-
tive, a rowing man of Bohemian tastes,
a sort of jack-at-all-trades, and good at
none. But now he seemed to have
found a new location where he would
be liable to remain some time.
81 am in Dakota" he wrote, s.and
I've taken up the incest claim you ever
saw-one hundred and sixty acres. [
have built me a little house, and I keep
old bachelors hall. l go where 1 please
in the day. I am only five miles from
the railroad, and people are coming in
and villages going up fast. I have
plenty to do and see-odd jobs of car
penter work, to keep me in living ex-
penses, and then 1 go back to my shanty
and sleep nights. You know l was a
soldier two years in the late Well,
that counts just so much time on my
land, and when lonce own it'll can sell it
or keep it for a homestead, as I choose.
Lots of women are taking up claims.
Now, I've been thinking of you, Carrie.
There is a splendidquarter section a lit
tie way from mine. 1t will be picked
up soon, and if you want to make
money, and have the grit to stand
roughing it, you'd better be the girl to
pick it up. You must have saved up
something, teaching so steadily as you
have for five years. 1t would cost you
but little to come out here on a land
holders ticket, but a little more to put
up a small cabin, and but a little more
to keep you for six months, and then
you just about own your land-at least
you've only got to make periodical Wis
its to it after that. And you can find
enough to do in the meantime. And
you a wear your old clothes and dress
as well as the best of them. And in a
few years you will be a rich woman,
Carrie, for this land will sell at a good
price, it is SO admirably located and
FERTILE"
Carrie had no sooner finished the let
ter than her mind was formed to go.
She hated %Smithtown and everybody in
it, and the further she could get away,
the better.
She wrote her uncle that she would
arrive within the next three weeks, and
she was with him in less than two.
81 have the lumber already for your
little home," he said, as he drove her
from the station to his stbachelor''
home.
Somehow she was lighter-hearted and
happier since she knew she was in Da-
kota, than she had been for months.
She knew why-she did not cheat her
self. 1t was because she was in the
same country with Alex. Hall. It gave
her q of companionship-this very
knowledge.
..In the morning 1 will take you out
and show you your claim" continued
her uncle. ''and I've chosen this site
for your cabin. It'll be about a mile
from mine-just a nice walk for you
when you get lonesome"
The next morning was bright and
sunny, but of course windy.
"What a wind! Does it blow often
like this?" asked Carrie, as they rolled
along over the smooth prairie.
"Windp Why, this is a calm day,
my DEAR" said Uncle Tom. "Just
wait until you have seen a Dakota biz
zard, my dear, before you talk of wind.''
By and by they came to Carries
t'quarter-section," as Uncle Tom called
it.
Carrie could not see where it "began''
or "left off," she told Uncle Tom. It
was like all the restof the country-iust
land and nothing more ; prairie melting
into prairie as far as the eye could
reach.
'Well, but I know where the invisi-
BILE lines lie" responded TIncle Tom