The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1884-10-17
MY QUARTER SECTION.


MY QUARTER SECTION.
We were friends. We had taught to
gether in one of our ward schools TO
six years. Together we had defied thu
scrutable Providence had placed oyel
us in the capacity of principal. To
gether we had prepared the Spreads
and "Blowouts, generic names for the
official show of examination papers,
drawings, etc., that are exhibited to the
world of admiring parents as the indi-
ridual and collective result of the gen.
ius 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 sGmmered it together
six long years. OF course we had
planned always to live together and
keep the most delightful of old maid S
halls, and-well, we were all that is
meant by the term intimate friends.
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. 1t was wet March morning
and was standing in the hall of the
Sixth Ward school house, trying to dry
my draggled 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 a wet umbrel-
Ga in one hand and paper in the other.
Thompy was always funny. 1t would
have taken q veritable deluge OF forty
days and forty nights to have made
her willing to acknowledge that is was
bad weather. She came In smiling
with q bright "Good-morn:ng,~ and,
without waiting for me to air nv elo-
Quence on the subject. she began:
See here, my dear, 1 have the
brightest plan you ever heard of for our
vacation and she proceeded to unfold
her paper and her plan. The paper
contained glowing account of the
opening splendors of the mighty Ter
ritory Of Dakota, and che unparalleled
chances of making a fortune and gain
ing q 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-emp;ion and
timber claims.
..You lust go out there, enter your
claim. put up a sod house, live in it six
months. prove up, pay Sl.25 an acre,
and YOU have your claim to live on or
TO SELL"
'Just Ike Old Jack Means, y inter-
rupted.
YES" said Thompy. laughing, land
make heaps an gobS o money, all out
o. Congress land"
@'But,' objected, "you forget that
the school year is nine months. and our
worthy forefathers ia arranging the
year have, with their usual want OF
foresight, planned fer only twelve
months. Where are you going to get
the other threc?"
But no objection that l could urge
had any weight with Thompy. for.
though l 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 Educ alton for six months
vacation, said VIC 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 1t woald cost us to carry out our
plans, what supplies in TIE way of
books, provisions. etc, we should take
with us, and how we shoald dress.
was Tor dressing il boomer costume
and carrying a few reyoiYers, but
Thompy would hear of neither. She
said there was no use in our looking
Ike trights Just because we were going
10 do something q little unusual, but
then she always was vain of her good
looks AS 10 revolVers, she declared
that she could not sleep with one IN the
house ! yielded about the dressing.
but was firm about the revolver.
You would be in pretty condition,
wouldn't you. said /. ..if when YOU got
Your house OF mud and dirt like the
foolish little pigs of or nursery days.
some tramp or other wild animal should
come along and take . notion to mur-
der youe No, mean TO have some
means OF protection and did.
Wish IN the cause OF public instruc-
ion. Which. as teacher, of course l
AN interested in, that I had our calcu-
tatons TO give to the world. but un-
fortunately they are lost, aud the table
OF our real expenses does not help me
70 relrodgce them. All, well, l fear
that, could present it to you. it would
be ROBBED of its illusions and, like the |
rose which the cunning alcheinist re-
crested from its own ashes,
Without the bloom. without the lost perfume !
However. 1 remember that the expenses
of our six months vacation and our
Gusrter-sectioD were 10 cost us lust
$S54.23. We were very exact. [ sug-
gessed to Thompy. that we could spend |
rhe extra two cents in chocolate creams
and have an even TWENTY-FIVE. but she
wss always close. and she said no, we |