Martinsburg gazette. (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1886-1887, 1886-11-15
A MODERN DELUGE.

$500
there tracts Of woodland. The people.
and there was now town. They called
It Bay City, possibly from the fact that
there was no bay there, The nearest
stream Of any size was ten miles to the
eastward, and this was only navigable
for light steamers at high stages of the
water. With that curious completeness
Of modern frontier life, the town within
ninety days Of the time the first rough
shanty was put up, had post Office,
churches, school house, stores, and
saloons. The people had arrived, settled
down, lald ont the city. and assumed a
certain state of civilization within the
space Of three months Though coming
from fourteen different nations, total
strangers to each other, and hardly able
to master the legal language of their
adopted country, they seemed to imbibe
at once with the free air of the prairie
that spirit Of fraternity, helpfulness and
good nature that characterizes the West
ern American.
Among those thus thrown together in.
a new land, as itewere in an eddy of the
mighty stream of emigration, was Nina
Landerfelt. Her father, evidently re-.
leased too late from Prussian military
service to be of any value to himself, had
taken quarter section, and with some;
help from the neighbors, particularly
the Americans, hsd reared some kind Of
q house just at the edge Of the woods
Here with him lived Nina, stout Of heart
and strong of limb, his daughter and
more than helpmeet. Wife and mother
there was ronc. She slept near Bingen
on the Rhine.
With the others came also Silas Hig-
gins, from Vermont, half farmer, half
sailor, q wandcrer with neither home
nor friends. He too had run up vel
low shanty, and lived alone, his own
housekeeper, M. n-of-all-work, gardener.
and carpenter There were whispers
through the place that he was in some
sense wanting, Witless creature, vision
airy and impractical. This last
In the eyes of the Americans, was enough
to place him at once among the fail
urcs. He had few tools, chiefly an
*, which he could WELD with won
derful skill, and his services were al
ways in request. He seemed shy man,
reserved, silent, and not social. This
too was against him, in the opinion Of
the foreign element. Moreover, he
saved lis money, which in the eyes Of
the saloon keepers and patrons was q
serious fault.
He was, in truth, man ignorant of
himself His life from his youth up had.
been SO ronph, 30 marked by toll neg
lect, and hardship, that he had grown
patiently dull. He had not yet walked
up to human life. He had been too long
struggling for food. f Nina came and
he lived. He was at the rough shed
that served as railroad station when
she and her father were Sc. down on the
raw prairie, weary, frightened, and a
little dazed at the strange place and
stranger peop'c. He had even spoken
y to her about her baggage, and offered
himself as Lcuse bLilder-for they must
have house She understood not a
word, and ye. she did understand, and
blushed and Smiled upon him.
Six molshss passed, and new man
had been Torn of full stature in that
place. He was thinker, an observer,
and an inventor. If he toiled before.
now he worked. If they had thought
him stupid once, now they called him
insane. He saw Nina every day,
for he. fathers land adj
Joined his own. He had often tried to
speak to her, but it had not been happy
conversation, and yet it served to thrill
him with something new, which he
guessed at, but could not name. II
seemed too good to name or sneak Of,
except to himself. He could not tell her.
He could only show her some day by
some grand deed, and then she would
know and understand.