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

4
take the same. We met with the most
| perfect courtesy from railroad officials,
] hOtel-DOrters, hackmen and fellow
/ travellers. OF course we took in all the
points of interest about st. Paul and
/ Minneapolis, and we used to en- ,OY i'm
mensely the imaginary sensation it
would create among our fellow travel
ers if they knew of our daring project,
4 but we never electrified them by dis
closing IT. They regarded Us as a
/ couple of innocent and inoffensive
/ teachers in search of recreation.
| 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
| lilies of the North and a thousand other
| flowers that crossed the waves of the
| prairie-g grass stretching away in end
| -ess succession rs far as the eye could
reach.
remember distinctly the first spell 1
| had of sinking of the heart. 1t was
| when ! saw, in the midst of a vast plain,
| a lone, forlorn little speck away of to-
ward the horizon that was some one's
| home, not another dwelling in sight in
all that wide Lonely prairie; the next
was when we reached Lawnsdale and
| found that the city consisted of two
/ tents and a woodshed. 1t was evening
when we passed through Moorehead
and Fargo, and the luminous ball of
electric light shining high over the lat
/ ter city looked weirdly beautiful.
| We reached our destination in the dim
| twilight of summer morning. and
stopped to get breakfast and rest a little
| before starting on our tour of investiga-
ton preparatory to taking up our
claims. Somehow it did not seem so
easy as it had at home and not quar-
! ter as romantic, but Thompy was as
/ enthusiastic as ever, and when | said
that 1 wished had brought few trees
along in ny trunk to improve the land
! scape q little she said it WAS wilder
without and what we waited WV the
sunshine.
/ After interview no the land agent and
/ a lot more work and bother we finally
/ started over the prairie on an oX-cart.
| Tie agent said he thought he knew a
/ place we would like, where we could
have our land joining and the other part
of the section occupied by a man from
/ New York who had his family along
and his brOther-in-law. Did YOU ever
ride after an OK team? ! hope so, for
if you have you VIII appreciate many
privileges that you would perhaps 9TH
erwise pass over as but slight advan-
/ tages. We moved through the prairie
/ (but that was alb and looked at the
wide mOnotOnOus landscape. After the
| first hour l remarked to ThOmpy that
thought we had better go into camp on
the wagon as we seemed to be about as
far rs when we started, but Thompv
said she liked it, that she was always
afraid of fast horses, and she could gct
rs much exercise and all the scenery
she wanted from her perch on the OK
cart Pretty soon she did get all the
scenery she wanted. and then that ex-
asperating girl pulled out microscope,
and proceeded to analyze flowers, Just
as aggravatingly cheerful and happy as
though she were at p picnic.
Along in the afternoon we came to
the place of the man from New York,
and here we got some dinner and were
shown the glOrIes of a sod house. We
had seen them at distance before, but
nothing like this. This was a veritable
palace of a sod house, with real win
dows and papered walls, with partitions
of unbleached muslin trimmed with
Turkey red that looked very pretty and
holne-like. ThOmpy went into raptures
over it, and regretted deeply that we
had not brought something along for
our walls. l didn't see as she needed
to display our ignorance before that
strange woman, but that was Just her
all over not a bit of proper pride,
After dinner we went with the OK
/ team to inspect the other part of the
, section, which the woman said she
hoped we would like, as she wished we
might be neighbours; she found it rather
/ lonely being eight miles from town and
no near neighbors. I couldn't see as it
made any difference where we took up
our claim; it all looked alike to me, and
l was beginning to think it might prove
a white elephant anyway.
We went TO town to get the necessary
papers and 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 Herder, said
that her husband and brother would do
all they could to help us, and in a 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, l can tell you. We could
find no paper to cover the unsIghtly
walls, and our furniture was of the
scantiest We could not make both
houses look inviting, so we used mine
for "a kitchen, though we conscientious
~ slept in it half the time. They were
very near together and not far from our
neighbors.
When we were fairly settled and had
had our first meal l told Thompy that
felt like the Swiss Family Robinson;
she laughed and said she didn't see
how l could feel like the whole family
without having n stable in the house,
as they always did. Now l think it
shows an envious disposition to always
be making fun of a romantic idea just
because YOU didn't think of it yourself,
but 1 punished her by putting my revOl-
yer in sight in a hole which | dug for it
i'm the wall. She dared not take it away,
so she always passed by on the other
side of the room. We got water from
well belonging to the Herders, who tried
in every possible way to soften the
hardshipS of our lot, though Thompy
always pretended there were none
that spoiled bread, no fresh meat, no
fruit, and ell the horrors of canned
goods were fun. We got fresh vegeta-
bles occasionally from our neighbOrs, rs
we had no garden, it being too late to
make one. When l complained it was
not pleasant, to say the least, to be re
minded of our Pilgrim mothers and
other pioneers. Because they had to
eat nasty messes is no reason that can
see for my liking them.
Our neighbors were nice, educated
people, and l have nothing to say
against them, but l did think it wasn't
exactly necessary for the brother
George Bradley a tall, gOOd-looking
Y ankee, to be always coming over to
our place on one excuse or another. If
it WASH { to do something it was to see
if we didn't want something, and
Thompy would always stop and talk
with him. Sometimes he would come
own. of an nNnninnr To hnar mo MAY fnr.