Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-07-05
AMONG THE CORN ROWS
AN INTERESTING ROMANCE
OF A DAKOTA SETTLER.
From Harper's Weekly.

specially delicious.
seagraves laughed. but did not enter the
Jhanty door. How do you like bachlng it2''
'Oh. don't mention itr' entreated Rob,
mauling the dough again. s'Come in an
sit down What in thunder y standin' out
there for?'
"Oh, I'd rather be where can see the
prairie. Great weather.
"Im-menser'
How goes breaking?''
"Iip-top! A lettle dry now: but the bulls
pull the plough through two acres day. How's
things in Boomtown?'
''Oh, same old grind"
Judge still lyin'?"
''Still at it"
major Mullens still swearin' to it?"
''You hit it like mallet railroad schemes
are thiekern prairie chickens. You've got
grit. Rob. don't have anything but crackers
and sardnes over to nv shanty, and here you
are making soda biscuit"
Il have t do it. Couldn't break if didn't.
You editors en- take things easy, lay around on
the prairie. and watch the plovers and medder-
larks; but we settlers have got to work"
Leaving Rob to sputter over his cooking Sea-
graves took his slow way off down toward the
oxen grazing in a little hollow. The scene was
characteristically, wonderfully beautiful. 1t
was about o'clock in day in late June and
the level plain was green and yellow and In
hsite In reach as a sea; the lowering sun
casting over Its distant swells a faint impalpa-
BILE mist through which the breaking teams on
the nelghborlng claims ploughed noisele ssly,
as figures In a dream. The whistle of gophers,
the faint, wailing. huttering cry of the falling
plover, the whir of the swift-winged prairie
pigeon or the quack of a lonely duck came
through the shimmering air. The Iarks infre-
quent whistle, piercingly sweet. broke from
the longer grass in the swales near by. No
other climate, SKY, plain could produce the
same unnamable weird charm. No tree to
wave, no grass to rustic; scarcely a sound Of
domestic life; only the faint melancholy sough-
1ns OF the wind in the short grass and the voices
OF the wild things of the prairie.
Seagraves, an impressionable young man
Cunior editor of the Boomtown Spke) threw
himself down on the sod. pulled his hat rim
down over his eyes and looked away over the
PLAIN 1t was the second year Of Boomtown's
existence, and Seagrayes had not vet grown
Restless under Its mOnotOny. Around him the
gophers played saucily. Tears were moving
here and there across the sod, with a peculiar
nolseless, efOrtless motion. that made them
seem az calm. lazy and unsubstantial as the
mist through which they made their way, even
the sound of passing wagons was a sort of low
well-fed self-satisfied chuckle.
Seagraves, ''holdiug down claim near Rob.
had come to see his neIghboring ''bach" be-
cause feeling the need of company; but now
mat he was near enough to hear him prancing
about getting supper he was content to lie
sIone ON a slope of the green sod.
Ihe silence of the prairie at night was we'll
Hgn terrible. Many night. as Seagraves Law
in MS bunk against the side of his cabin he
would strain his ear to hear the slightest sound
ana De listening thus sometimes for minutes be.
lore the squeak of a mouse or the step of pass
ing FOX came as a relief to the aching sense. In
the daytime, however. and especially on a
morning, the prairie was another thing. The
pigeons, the iarks, the cranes the multitudinous
voices OF the ground birds and snipes and in
sects, made the air pulsate with sound-a
chorus that died away into an infinite murmur
OF music.
Hello. Seagraves." yelled Rob from. the
door The biscuit are most don."
Seagrayes did not speak; only nodded his
head and slowly rose. The faint clouds in the
west were getting superb fame color above
and misty purple below and the sun had shot
them with Iances Of yellow light As the air
grew denser with moisture the sounds Of neigh
porlnS life began to reach the ear Children
screamed and laughed and affair or a woman
was singing lullaby. The rattle of wagons
anc voices OF men speaking to their teams null
hphed- Ducks in a neIghboring lowland were
quacking. The whole scene took hold upon
Seagraves with irresistible power
lit is American" he exclaimed mo other
land or time can match this mellow air, this
wealth OF color, much less the strange social
conditions OF life on this sunlit Dakota prairie"
p Rob, though visibly affected by the scene
also, couldn't let his biscuit spoil, or 90 with
out proper attention.
Say. amt y comm Z grub?' he asked, i'm
patiently
In a minute" replied his friend, saking
last wistful look at the scene. II want one
more look at the landscape
Landscape be blessed, II you'd been
breakin all day Come, take that stool
en- draw up."
No; Ill take the candle box"
mot much know hat ,,onn1-.
am a bull driver"
Sesgrsves took the three-legged and rather
precGrious-looking stool and drew IN TO the
table, which was a fiat broad box nailed ND
board nailed at the outer corners for legs
''HOw's that FIR a layout" Rob inquired
proudly.
We'll, you have spread yourself, Biscuit
and canned peaches and sardines and cheese
Why, this ls-is-prodigal"
''It amt nothIn' else"
Rob was from one Of the finest counties NJ
Wisconsin, over toward Milwaukee. He was Of
German parentage, a middle-sized cheery
wlde-aWake, good-looking young fellow-a typ
ical claim holder. He was ALWAYS copfdenf
Jovial and full OF plans for the future He had
dug his own well, built his own sliantv washed
and mended his own clothing. H, could do
anything and do it well. He had a fine aeIdsof
wheat and was finishing the ploughing of his
entire quarter section.
This Is what l call settin' under a fellar,s
own vine an tg tree'-after Seagrave's com
pliments-''an like il. I'm my own boas No
man can say come here n go there to me. I
get up when I'm amin to an 20 T. bed when
I'm amin to- A
Some drawbacks. s'pose?"
les Nice fr instance, give me .devilish
lot o trouble. They get into my foutE ariel.
eat up my cheese an fall into my well. VT il
amt no use Z swear" \
The rats and the mice they made sucb strix
He had go ~ London to buy him . wife,"
quoted Sesgraves. Don't blush. I've probed
your secret thought"
We'll. TO tell the honest truth said Rob
little sheepishly. leaning across the table. II
ain satisfied with my style O. cookin'. It's
gooc, Out little too plain, v know I'd like
/. change. II amt much fun to break
all day, and then go to work an cook y'r own
supper
This fall I'm goin' back to Wisconsin
Girls are thick as huckleberries back there
and m goin bring one back. now Won hear
me-" '"1 Ae"A
Good. That's the plan" laughed Seapraves
amused at certain timid and apprebensive
look IN ms companions eye Just tbink what
woman d do To put this shanty in shane. and
think how nice IL would be to take her arm and
saunter out after supper and look at the farm
and plan and lay out garden and paths and tend
the chickens" oA1
obs manly and self-reliant nature had the
settlers typical buoyancy AMI hopefuiness' as
wen as certain power of analysis, which en-