Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1890-03-08
CHAPTER I.
THE LETTER.

DEAR MARrHA-I can't come home after
you and the babies like hoped to do, cause
I'm broke again; leastwise l hev ben since 1
wrote you last. AMI l amt squarely got onto
my feet yet, but I'm gotn ter send you some
money by next steamer; all can scrape
together, and I want you and the babies to
pack up and come out.
know it looks hard fer you to have to make
the trip across the plains alone with the chill
dren. but don't see no way to help it unless
can't stand that. nor don't believe you want
to either And there's Rastus; no must be
heap, and I'll do tho square thing by the bow
when he gets out here.
writ 10 that he is go.n to come out this sum.
mer with company, and you can come with
Perkinsv. lie now, ber driv OH of his land
long of the rest OF us. Sy will be glad 70 do
broke up back in New England BY Roin Sc
curity at the bank, he and swopped SYM
patty hy With ono another and now that the
VIII De w1li!n to do some more swopin OF the
same IND ! reckon; as swopin sympathy
lspose youth want to Know what kind of
place am askin you to come to, and tell
done q way up job when she made this coun-
try; Just about the best she is capable of doin.
reckon, an all I'm askin for now is to have
the hard work and losses we've had, and
they We driv us from sea to sea almost, a COB
made EN- by hard work A"0
Seems to me tibet Their must be somethin
chance with the rich an the more law the less ms
the fellows that works gifts.
When wrote you afore, was rakin in the
fellows from New York came up there and
proposed to form O jint stock company. and
out the ore. agin our claim; an bein as we was
anxious to get at the dust as fast as possible,
families. we agreed to it. but some way y it
the otBs1 ssows like # 9s done
book keeper, and pard and me never exactly
understood how it was, but there was assess
both froze out Of the mine entirely after pay
IN back to the company all the dust wo had
taken out afore We was such fools as to go in
After that knocked around in the dieeins
FOR spell an then hearin Of this Suscol
kanch struck out for it, and here am; an
tell you, wife, she's just the most glorious
bit Of country on this side Of the big range
they hev crost it. and hev took up l6O acres
Of land, and will hev a cabin up an good bit
be comfortable In our old age yit, in spite of
This here's the finest valley in the State and
would all have been took up long ago only
some rich fellows pretended to have kind Of
Spanish claim on to it. ana folks were afraid
drv OF like We have BEEN but s nall Sr s oee
Teller took the case up to court aud it was de-
as was on tho land maxim OF themselves
homes: and now everybody is a rushin in and
be afraid Of bein lonesome, for w we i il have
neighPors on every side in less than year.
Well. this is an awful long letter. but you
see wanted to tell sou all about over, thing
and hope you wont feel too bad hooausei
cant come for you. You know Id like to if
have to su cant Sr shant
much further any way. unless they make us
courts hes decided that no body hes any claim
on to this here ranch, ceptin the fellows that
think sy Peters will be down to sec YOU
within aweek from the time you get this. for
wrote him to go at once 30 as to give you all
Hopin this will find you and the babies as
well US it leaves me. remain
JOHN PARSONS.
The above letter was read BY Martha
Parsons, first silently, and then aloud
to her two little girls, eight and ten
years OF age. as they stood in front OF
their mother and listened with breath
less attention and wide open eyes, as if
seeing wonderful things, half glorious,
half frightful, but altogether strange
and unexplainabe.
These were the babies that John Par
sons had left six years before, when a
corporation representing railroad laid
claim to a large tract of land upon
which he and hundreds of others had
settled, having bought and paid for it,
and holding. as they supposed, incon-
test bio It'll S thereto.
When it first became known to them
that corpo alton would contest with
them tue right to their homes and
farms, a portion of the settlers threat
ened vengeance and declared they would
give up Their own on.y with their lives;
but John loved peace better than con-
tention, and knew by experience the
difficulty of fighting bodies that have no
souls within them. and he had said to
his wifei
lit Is no use, Marty. The Philistines
are upon us agln. and we have got to
git. It's hard, know; harder fer you
ner for me, for you was brought up sort
o tender like and ust to better things,
an YOU We worked hard and gone with
out much, and now when we was lust
gettin' start agin' after losin' what
your father Civ us an all we had added
to it, on the spot where you was born,
It's mighty tough, bu5 Wen have to
stand it.
''They can't put us off tho place for a
time. any way, for some of the fellers
0AS So,h W SiA WIFI Iu0 law,
though faint no use, for they'll take
everything they want in the end; and
they want it all. But while they are a
dom it I'll try an win enough to make
another home for you and the babies.
1'llgo to California, Marty, and maxi
fortune, while you stay on the place
with the youngsters, and by the time
they git ready to turn you out of this,
never fear but I'll come back with
enough to take you to another home
an better one May be it is for the
best, after all. May be I'll git rich
enough to go back East and buy the
old place where you was born"
And SO Johu Parsons had got to-
gether what money he could by the sale
Of their few head of cattle and sheep,
leaving the family with one COW to sup
ply them with milk, had kissed the
babies as they Law asleep in their Grad g.
had kissed the wifi who for long yea:s