Waterbury evening Democrat., 1891-09-23

come Dack nome, out Co CONSIDER MINI
self disinherited and disowned. This
notice did not quite crush John, since
home had never been particularly pleas
ant, and to be relegated from it was not
such a terrible blow as his father might
have supposed; and as to being disin-
herited. well, that was little short of a
joke, for the elder Green's possessions
were extremely limited, consisting in
the main of forty acres of poor,
mortgage-ridden land, and a dozen farm
animals, none of which were very
choice.
So, disinherited and disowned, John
and Mary Green went to work on their
own responsibility and for time sue
ceeded remarkably well. They brought
their little home up to point Of mar
yelous perfection, and had a neat sum
In bank to which they were regularly
making additions. They were content
ed, and even happy, in spite of the fact
that they were strangers to their par
ents.
But by and by reverses came. First,
Mary took with fever and for weeks
lay in the edge of deaths shadow.
Then, after she recovered, John lost his
position on account of the house with
which he was connected failing.
Months of idleness followed, for there
was business crash in the land and
employment was hard to obtain, with
an army of MISUNDERSTANDING en-
ployes tramping the streets of every
town and village in search of work.
The little store in the bank began to
melt away, but to make short work Of
that the bank failed. Then John, dis
heartened and worn out, fell sick, and
for months was unable to leave the
house. In this condition they began to
feel the effects of want, and having no
other means of raising money to live on,
they gave a mortgage on their home.
Other sickness and other misfortunes
followed, so that John was never able
to release the debt on his home, and in
time, when the interest had eaten in
deeply, the place was sold.
Then John and Mary, with the ir
child who had been born to them the
first year after their marriage, collected
together the small possessions that
were left them and joined the swarm of
eastern people who were on their way
to Kansas to take up claims and make
homes on the great western prairies.
| They went away out near the west
line of the state before they were able
|
not been granted to some railroad
company or other corporation, or had
not been leased to some cattle king,
whose right to make fortune off pub
lie land must be considered and pro-
tected no matter what became of the
! poor man who wanted a few acres of
land for q home.
At last, after driving for days and
days across the green, rich prairies in
tested by the cattlemen, and marked
about by the stakes of different cor
porations, John Green, with his wife
and child and their Stacking old white
topped wagon, halted on the sandy
plains of western Kansas and preempt-
ed claim in the alkali desert and set
tied down to combat with drought, hot
winds and malaria.
When John had selected his claim and
got his presumption papers all arranged,
he began the construction of a sod
house, and in short time the new
house was ready for occupancy. He
was disappointed in the result of his
trip, and he knew that Mary was also
though she had never breathed word
to that effect. He felt that they had
/ better remained east, and had ominOus
! doubts of the outcome of the move.
But it was done, and since to retreat
was impossible, he resolved to go on
and make the best of it.
So he plowed the sod and planted the
j crops, and in time the seed sprouted
and came up. Then he cultivated the
fields early and late, and as the growing
corn sprang up higher and higher AND