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

3 cents there than not, tn3t lnAail s0fHcil
reports they always managed to hay
an uneven number to show no,
very exact they were in their calculi
tons. s.
We always spoke of our possession
as our .'quarter-section. as 1t sounde
q great deal larger that way. We too
half bushel of walnuts to plant, wal
nut timber is SO very valuable, 20
know. Thompy said we were like tn
man who planted acorns for his frs
crop. We took about a peck of gardel
seeds and a hoe without handle, bu
time would fail me to tell of all the alb
surdities we perpetrated. We wer
ready at last. presume the jour
Iney was much like that of any othe
two lone teachers who should under
take the same. We met with the mos
perfect courtesy from railroad officials
hotel-porters, hackmen. and fellow
travellers. OF course we took in all th,
points of interest about st. Paul anl
Minneapolis, and we used to enjoy i'm
menscly the imaginary sensation i
would create among our fellow travel
ers if they knew of our daring project
but we never electrified them by dis
closing it. They regarded US as Q
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 thousand other
| flowers that crossed the waves of the
prairie-grass stretching away in end
ess succession as far as the eye could
reach.
remember distinctly tho first spell /
had OF sinking of the heart. 1t was
! when saw, in the midst of a vast plain.
lone, forlorn little speck away off to-
ward the horizon that was some ones
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 a summer morning. and
stopped to get breakfast and rest 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 a GUAR
ter as romantic, but Thompy was as
enthusiastic as ever, and when l said
that 1 wished / had brought few trees
along in my trunk to improve the land
scape little she said it was wilder
without and what we wanted was the
sunshine.
After interviewing the land agent and
a lot more work and bother we finally
started over the prairie on an ox-sart.
The agent said he thought he knew q
place we would like, where we could
have our land joining and the other part
of the section occupied by man from
New York who had his family along
and bis brother-in-law. Did you ever
ride after an OK team? hope so. for
if you have you will appreciate many
privileges that you would perhaps 9TH
erwise pass over as but slight advan-
tages. We moved through the prairie |
(but that was alD 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 as when we started, but Thompy
said she liked it, that she was Always
afraid of fast horses, and she could got
rs much exercise ami all the scenery
she wanted from her perch on the OK
cart Pretty soon she did get all the
hn tad nv,l
girl pulled out a microscope,
and proceeded to analyze flowers, lust |
as aggravatingly cheerful and happy as
though she We're at . 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 q distance before, but
nothing like this. This was a eeritable |
palace OF q sod house, with real VIM
dows and papered walls, with partitions
of unbleached muslin trimmed with |
Turkey red that looked very pretty and !
home like. Thompy went into raptures
over it, and regretted deeply that we
mad 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 tie woman said she |
hoped we would like, as she wished we
might be neighbois; she found it rather |
lonely being eight miles from town and |
no near ppiyhhors I rouiin't Gao DC ~ |
made any difference where we took MP |
our claim; it all looked aliketo me, and |
| was beginning to think it might prove i
a white elephant anyway.
We went to town to get the necessary |
papers and n man to help get the |
houses ready, for we We're 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 |
Ill they could to help us, and in short !
time our houses were ready for us to |
enter and take possession of our long,
ireamed-of claims. They didn't look
very inviting, 1 can tell you. We could
ind no paper to cover the unslghtly !
walls, and our furniture was OF the
We could not make both
houses look inviting. so we used mine !:
or a kitchen, though we conscientious
> slept in it half the time. They were
Iery near together and not far from our
lsighborS.
When we were fairly settled and had
lad our first meal told Thompy that
felt like the Swiss Family Robinson;