The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1894-05-03
THE PROMISED LAND,
An Emigrant Family on the Plain Moving
Westward. 81


these galloping dots were hard to
count-down in the distant bottom
across the river. Their swiftly moving
dust hung with them close, thinning
to yellow veil when they halted
short. They clustered moment, then
parted like beads, and went wide
asunder on the 1plain. They veere6
singly over the level, merged in twos
and threes, apparently racing, shrank
together like elastic, and broke ranks
again to swerve over the stretching
waste From this visioned pantomime
presently came sound, tiny shot
The figures were too far for discerning
which fired it. 1t evidently did no
harm, and was repeated at once. Soon,
Tor no visible reason, the dots ran to-
gether, punching compactly. The
shooting stopped, the dust rose thick
again from the crowded hoofs, cloak
ing the group, and so passed back and
was lost among the silent, barren hills.
-Four emigrants had watched this from
the high bleak rim of the Big Bend.
They stood were the fiat of the desert
broke and titled down in grooves and
bulges deep to the lurking Columbia.
Empty levels lay opposite, narrowing
up into the high country.
That's the Colville reservation
across the river from us, - said the man.
Another" sighed his wife.
''The last Indians we'll strike. Our
trail to the Okanagon goes over a
corner Of it.
Were going to those hills?" The
mother looked at her little girl and
back where the cloud had gone.
"Only corner, Liza. The ferry puts
us over on it, and we've got to go by
the ferry or stay this side of the
Columbia. You wouldn't want to start
a home here?'
They had driven twenty-one hun
dred miles at a walk. Standing by
them were the six horses with the
wagon, and its tunnelled roof of canvas
shone duskily on the empty verge OF
the wilderness. A dry windlass all
hung over the table-land of the Big
Bend, but sound rose from some
where, floating voluminous upon the
silence, and sank again.
Rapids The man pointed far w
the giant rut of the stream to where a
streak of white water twinkled at the
foot of the hills. We've struck the
river too high" he added.
''Then we don't cross here?" said the
woman, quickly.
mo. By what they told me the
cabin and the ferry ought to be five
miles down"
Her face fell. only five miles!
was wondering, john Wouldn't
there be a way round for the children
to-"
"Now, mother" interrupted the hus
band, that amt like you. We've
crossed plenty Indian reservations this
trip Already"
81 don t want to go round" the little
girl said. Father don't make me &C
round"
Mart, the boy, with loose hook o:
hair hanging down to his eyes from
his Eat, did not trouble to speak. II,
had been disappointed in the westward
full. He knew which way he should &C
now, and he went to the wagon to lool
once again down the clean barrel of hi.
rifle.
"Why, Nancy, you don't like In
dians?" said her mother.
Eyes, do. like chiefs"
Mrs. Clallam looked across the river
SIT was so strange, John, the way they
acted. 1t seems to get stranger, think
ing about it."
They didn't see US. They didn''
have notion"
But if we're going right over?'
We're not going over there, Liza
That quick waters the Mahkin Rapids
and our ferry's clear down below from
this place"
"What could they have been after
do you think?"
"Those chaps? o, nothing, I guess
They weren't killing anybody"
playing cross-tag" said Mart.
'Td like to know, John, how you
know they weren't killing anybody
They might have been trying to-"
Then we're perfectly safe, Liza
We can set and let EN- kill US all day.
"Well, don't think it's any kind OF
way to behave, running around shoot
ing right off your horse"
'And Fourth of July over, too" saiC
Martin from the wagon. He was put
ting cartridges into the magazine OF
his Winchester. His common sense
told him that those horsemen would
not cross the river, but the notion of q
night attack pleased the Imagination
of sixteen.
sit was the children" said Mrs. Clal
lam. And nobody's getting me any
wood. How am l going to cook supper:
Stir yourselves
They had carried water in the wagon
and father and son went for wood.
Some way down the hill they came
upon gully with some dead brush
and elm bed back with this. Supper
was eaten on the ground the horses
were watered, given grain, and turned
loose to find what pickings they might
in the lean growth, and dusk had not
turned to dark when the emigrants
were in their beds on the soft dust
Owen Wister, in Harper's Magazine.
The Change in Dining Customs.
The hours of dining and the time o.
retiring at night have, it would APP
pear, been undergoing a constant
change in England, as well as in other
L.. 4 l.. So 4. l..