Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1885-05-06
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 defied 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 examination papers,
drawings, ETC., that are exhibited to the
world of admiring parents rs 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 maid s
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. 1t was wet March morning
and 1 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 n wet umbrel-
Ia in one hand and paper in the other.
Thompy was always funny. 1t would
have taken veritable deluge of forty
days and forty nights to have made
her willing to acknowledge that it was
bad weather. She came IN smiling
with a bright "Good-morning," and,
without waiting for me to air my elo-
quence on the subject, she began:
''See here, my dear, 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 the unparalleled
chances of making fortune and gain
ing a home by going out to the vast,
unoccupied prairies and taking up q
claim" just picking it up, you know,
so easy and comfortable. Then fol-
lowed q statement of the laws regard
ing the acquiring of the various kinds
of claims, homestead, presumption and
timber claims.
"You just 60 out there, enter your
claim, put up 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 like Old Jack Means" I inter-
rupted.
Eyes" said Thompy, laughing, 'and
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 forcfathers in arranging the
year have, with their usual want OF
foresight, planned for only twelve
months. Where are you going to get
the other threep'
But no objection that could urge
had any weight with Thompy, for,
though am much older than she, she
is much better looking than I, and, con-
sequently, very beadstrong. So she
overruled every objection that L could
bring forward, and, arranging with the
Board OF Education for q six months
vacation, said we would go.
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 it would cost us TO carry out our
plans, what supplies i'm the way of
books, provisions, ETC., we should take
with us, and how we should dress.
was for dressing in bloomer costume
and carrying few revolvers, but
Thompy would hear of neither. She
said there was no use in our looking
like frights just because we were going
to do something little unusual, but
thensshe always. was vain of her good
looks, As to revolvers, she declared
that She could not sleep with one in the
house l yielded about the dressing,
but / was firm about the revolver.
"You would be in a pretty condition,
wouldn't you," said i, ''if when you got
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 notion to MUIR
der youp No, l mean to have some
means of protection" and ! did.
L wish. in the cause of public instruc-
ton, which, as teacher, of course /
am interested in, that / had our calcu-
lations to give to the world. but un-
fortunately they are lost, and the table
OF our real expenses does not help me
In I, n
that, could | present IL to you, IL would
be robbed of its illusions and, like the
rose which tho cunning alchemist re-
created from its own ashes,
Without the bloom, without the lost perfume.
However, i remember that the expenses
OF our six months vacation and our
quarter-sectiop were to cost us Just
S354.23. 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, VIC
would do no such thing, that 1t looked
better q 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
tons.
We always spoke of our possessions
as our quarter-section," as 1T sounded
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 peck of garden
seeds and q hoe without handle, but