Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-01-30
THE HITHERTO CLAIM.

the prairie cleaned yellow in the burning
sun. Every bird was still the ouly sound
was the merry chirp of the grasshopper.
The prairie flowers dropped to the earth,
and no breeze famed them back to life. I
was new settler" having come from my
New England home to take up a quarter
section of farming land under the laws
which allow unmarried women the same
rights and privileges accorded to men, in
the having and holding Of claims On this
day l had ridden to the postoffice, a dis
lance of four miles, and was returning bv
a different route, when something very IN
usual for the prairie met my eyes. Here
was claim very different from that of the
ordinary settler. The ripening corn the
acres OF wheat and oats, the thrifty cotton
wood trees, transplanted from the creek
miles away, all these showed marked skill
and unceasing care. The house. too,
though small and poor, was very different
from the usual claim shanty." Ii had at
least two windows, and only one is re-
quired b. law. Ali around the low door
grew tall marigolds, glowing hollyhocks
and mignonette, with long spikes of fra
grant bloom. II was an oasis in the gen.
eral desolation. | refined in my Indian
pony as ! neared the house, which stood
near one corner of the claim, and a stout,
happy-faced woman appeared in the mar
row doorway / was about to start on
when she called out:
Won't YOU come in, Miss, an have a
glass o water? It's hot day we're
havin'"
could not resist the genuine friendi-
ness of the voice, and so l dism0unted and
hlfrhp1 rhp in H.. gbal. Of J.,
house.
" Come right in, an sit by spell, the
stranger went on, as she led the way into
the house, and placed large chintz-covered
rocker for me- You're welcomes can
be don't know you. but I s'pose you re
the young lady I've heard Of as has taken
claim y, range III, air you2"
She stopped long enough to hear my af-
hrmauye answer. ana went on
Well, now, I'm real glad to see YOU
It's sieery sort o thing to do come out
here an take up a claim, ali by yourself
La amt told you my name I'm Mis-
Ross, an yOnder's Reuben in the corn
field with a nod toward the small west
window, an this here is the Hitherto
Claim Mebbe you see the name on a bit
o board as you come in
As she stopped for breath I said glanc-
ing admiringly at the fiower-bed BY the
door It's unusual to see q hower-garden
on claim it cheers one up wonderfully"
Don t it now? It's all Reuben's work ::
he brought the seeds from his mothers
garden, in York State. Reuben used to
say that that was the only thing that
looked bit hOme-like, except me-" She
added, with proud glance through the
tiny west window. You ought to have
seen the time We had to make 'em grow at
first. They was homesick. guess. ike us
But now there happy and contented, like
us"
You found it hard, then, to leave your
home and settle in Dakota? | asked
Hard was that homesick the first
few months ! came near dyin Of it. 1t all
come about from that that we named our
place the Hitherto Claim Mebbe vou
wouldn't mind hearin aboutit, if you ain t
in hurry. III get my work, and you set
there and rest"
settled myself in the ample rocker,
with such a sense OF comfort as I had not
known since I had been n settler.
Gcn see twas a year'n more ago. a year
in April, that We come out here Things
had got pretty dull in Johnsonville-that' $
where we lived. Want any business goin'
Oh, an Reuben was ont o work months at
% time. He worked in wagon factory,
Reuben did, an q master hand he was at it.
too, if do say il. A glance toward the
corn field, where broad-shouldered, mid
dle-aged man was at work.
We'd heard of the Dakota fever, but
nobody from our place had gone, an Reu-
ben used 10 read everything he could find
about Dakota, for he'd lots of time bein'
ont of work, an one day he says TO me,
Sarah says he, don you think we'd
better go to Dakota an take a claim p
Well. | was so upset at the thought o
la4r~fn' TaHuepfNsriIla zrrig
brought up, an where my folks all lived,
that just couldn't answer at first, but at
least | see how much better 'twould be for
us TO go somewhere, times benz so hard, so
] said, brave as / could, Yes, Reuben, If
you say SO, hopin all the time he'd change
his mind; but he didn't, SO got ready.
" 1t was hard, though" and the coarse
sewing dropped from her fingers, as she
wiped her eyes on a corner OF her blue
bingham apron. " 1t was hard, for besides
ieaYin' my iather an mother an sisters.
Reuben an | had laid in Johnsonville
cemetery the only child we ever had Well,
we come ont here, an It was worse'n I'd
any idea of. We brought sill the money we
had, an we knew we couldn't make il last
much longer'n fall, when we calculated on
good crops 10 keep Us through the winter.
OF course we laid by the $500 to pay for the
claim It the end o the six months, it bein'
pre-emption. But the crops didn't any
ways come up TO what we'd calculated on
Twas hot an dry. an the potato bugs
come. an the cabbage worms an the go
piers an rabbits, an everything that could
come. So we see from the first we'd got to
be savin's possible. Well that was q
terrible summer, an homesick Why
it did seems if I'd die. an sometimes
l didn't care if l should. | was sure
we'd got entirely beyond the Lords care
an he'd forgotten all about Us. | got
cross, an sick, an hopeless But, my l
didn't say much about il to Reuben. fol
once in q while he'd say, Sarah, we amt
got beyond the Lord providence yet. Re.
member that motto But likes not !
wouldn't answer, | was so homesick and
discouraged about havin' to live so. The
motto he spoke OF was one he'd bought Just
before he came away from home it was a
cardboard one, and / worked il in shaded
red worsted, nice as could be- II said
Hitherto bath the Lord helped u.s..
/ knew what Reuben meant when be
told me to remember that motto. but he
was so patient an kind that | couldn't bear
to tell MIN that il didn't mean much to me
those days. He's a wonderful good man,
Reuben is, but it just seemed to me the
Lord had forgotten all about us, an WASH {
helpin rs at all. / see you're shocked,
Miss, an no wonder, seem / had been Q
professor nigh onto fourteen years, bui
mebbe you amt suffered what / suffered
that summerl He'd bought nice frame
for the motto but l hadn't hung it up al
all, an it stood on the floor, with its face to
the wall, though / could see Reuben didn't
like to see il so.
"Well, Reuben worked hardin l ever
see man work before, an by June he'd
dug that well you see yonder. and people
used to come miles an miles TO get water
for good water was even scarcer last sum.
mer than It's this, an ! noticed pale
timid woman comm for water, drivin' the
worst-looking pair of horses you ever see.
She used to draw it up by the pailful, an