The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1884-10-16
MY QUARTER SECTION.

MY QUARTER SECTION.
We were friends. We had taught to-
gether in one of our ward schools for
six years. Together we had deiied 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 "BlOwOuts,' generic names for the
official show of eXaminat ion papers,
drawings, etc, that are exhibited to the
world of admiring parents as the indi-
vidual and collective result of the gen
Jus of their individual and collective
progeny. In the long vacations we had
gone on various excursions together,
read the most approved educational
and literary works, and in short. win
tered it and summered il together for
six long years. of course we had
planned always to live together and
keep the most delightful of old maids
halls, and-well, we were all that is
meant by the term intimate friends.
1 think it was in March of 1882 that
The idea struck us. / do not remember
what paper it was that illumined our
darkness however, that is of no conse-
quence. IL was n wet March morning
and | was standing in the hall of the
Sixth Ward school house, trying to dry
my dragglcd skirts at the register and
feeling well, rs though it would be
emincntly safe for the future candidates
for the Presidency to cultivate the for
!eign &C Omplshmcnt of walking Span
ish that day, when Miss Arabella
Thompson came in with a wet umbrel-
Ia IN one hand and paper in the other.
.IhOmpy was always funny. 1t would
have taken veritable doluge OF forty
DAYS and forty nights to have made
her willing to acknowledge that il 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, 1 have the
'br ghtcSt plan you ever heard of for our
vacation, and she proceeded to unfold
her paper and her plan. The paper
tcontained n glowing account of the
opening splcndors of the mighty Ter
ritory of Dakota, and che unparalleled
chances of making a fortune and gain
ing n home by going out to the vast.
uuoCCupied prairics and 'taking up q
claim, just picking it up, you know,
so easy and com ortahlc. Then fol-
lOwed n statement of the laws regard
ing the acquiring of the various kinds
of claims, homestead, pre-emption and
timber claims.
"You Just 20 out there, enter your
claim. put up a sod house, live in it six
months, prove up, pay Sl.25 an acre,
ana YOU have your claim to live on or
TO sell"
Just like Old Jack Means inter
rupted.
Yes" said Thompy, laughing, land
make heaps an gobs o. money, all out
o Congress land"
But l objected, you forget that
the school wear is nine months, and our
worthy fOrcfathers in arranging the
year have, with their usual want OF
foresight planned for only twelve
months. Who're are you going to get
the other thrcc?"
But no objection that | could urre
had any weight with Thompy for,
though / am much older than she, she
rs much better looking than /, and, CON
sequently, very hoadstrong. So she
,Overrulcd every objection that l could
bring forward, and, arranging with the
Board OF Education for a six months
vacation, said we would go.
The upshot of the whole matter was
that / mcCkly yielded, and our moons
aud reccsses for the next three months
were spent in making calculations as to
what il would cost us to carry out our
books, provisions, etc, VIC should take
with us, and how we should dress. L
was for dressing in blOomer costume
and carrying a few revolvers, but
IhomDy would hear of neither She
said there was no use in our looking
like trights Just because we were going
TO do something n little unusual, but /
then she always was vain of her good /
looks As to revolvcrs, she declared /
that she could not sleep with one in the /
house. | yielded about the dressing, |
but | was firm about the revolver
"Gou would be in pretty condition. /
wouldn't you, said l, eff when YOU cot /
your house of mud and dirt like the !
foolish little pigs of our nursery days, |
some tramp or other wild animal should |
come along and take a notion TO muir
der youP No, L mean to have some
means of protection" and ] did
wish in the cause of public instruc-
ton, which. as a teacher, of course / |
am interested in. that / had our calcu- |
lations to give to the world, but I'M
fortunately they are lost, and the table |
OF our real expenses does not help me /
TO reproduce them. All. WELL l fear /
that, could present it to YOU, it would I
be robbed of its Illusions and, like the |
rose which the cunning alchemist re-
created from its own ashes,
Without the bloom, without the lost perfume. /
However, l remember that the expenses /
of our six months vacation and our /
QuaTter-section were to cost us lust /
SS5f23. We were very exact. [ sug-
gested TO Thompy that we could spend /
the extra two cents in chocolate creams /
and have an even twenty-five, but she /
was always close, and she said no, we /
would do no such thing, that il looked |
better n good deal to have the three /
cents there than not; that in all official /
reports they always managed to have
an uneven number to show how
very exact they were in their calcula-
lions.
3 We always spoke of our possessions
rs our "quarter-section,' as It sounded 1
a great deal larger that way. We took
a half bushel of walnuts to plant, wal
nut timber is so very valuable, you
know. Thompy said we were like the
man who planted acorns for his first
crop. We took about a peck of garden
seeds and a hoe without a handle, but
time would fail me to tell Of all the alb ]