Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1895-02-14
Hans BTyQjuls0l's Mortgage.
BY WILLIAM WALLACE COOK.
A Dakota night.

shadows, rolls away to the south anC
vanishes among the ghostly stars.
Midway between the coteaux ant
the southernmost shadows there is
marsh through whose sedges TIL,
night wind signs fitfully; and til,
frogs, from their reedy haunts, croal
hoarse accompaniment.
For Hans Brynjulson, smoking ii
the door Of his shack" and looking
out over the moonlit plain and co
teaux, there is but one word in the
heart, one song on the lips of nature
christina
Well. indeed, did Hans remember
her braids of golden hair-her spark
ling eyes-the fair beauty OF hel
northern face.
They had parted-but that wa:
long ago.
You will make your fortune in
America, Hans. Be brave. / will
come when you want me. God be
with you, my dear one ~
Not a day passed but these words
leaped from the memory to the heart
Of Hans Brynjulson. They were
oftener on his lips than were his
prayers. Perhaps they were more
fervently uttered.
But had Hans really made his fort.
une?.
The small sum brought with him
from the old country had been spent
in paying his passage to Dakota |;
in making the necessary filings on
his homestead; in building his little
shack, and frugally furnishing it; in
procuring horses and few farm inn
plements, and in buying seed with
which to plant the newly broken
| ground.
What was tho result?
The first year the dreaded south
west wind scorched and withered IL
field almost ready for the reaper, but
he saved enough grain to plant the
land again. The second year, crops
were backward. Harvest time was
thrown so far into the fall that the
wheat was 'nipped" by frost and
shriveled and blackened in the husk.
The third year-what Wells county
pioneer will not remember that
crops were beaten to the ground by
hail.
How had Hans contrived to keep
body and soul together during these
| years Of trial?
By mortgaging his possessions.
| His claim, his horses, his farming
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS been
laid under contribution to tide him
over the hard times
1t was in August of "the year that
brought the hail"--so runs Wells
county chronology-that Hans sat
smoking in the door of his shack and
looking off into the purple shadows.
In his hands he held letter. 1t was
dark and he could not read it-but
this was unnecessary. He had
conned it word for word until he
could have recited 1t by note.
The letter was from Christina.
She told her lover, in simple words,
that she could not remain away from
him longer. A longer absence, for
her, was worse than death. Surely,
her willing hands would prove a
mighty factor in his hard life. The
meanest drudgery at his side and for
him would be happiness for her.
The Stockholm sailed on the 1st of
December for New York, Could he
not send her money to pay her pass
| age? III so, she would come third
class all the way. God bless him
for the faithful lover that he was
Poor Hans!
He had never written Christina OF
his heroic struggle with fate. She
knew, indeed, that he was battling
with misfortune, but he never wrote
her how completely wretched his sit
uation had become.
What should he do now? Tell her
all? Explain that he had not o
penny he might call his own?
No, no. His heart rebelled against
such course. Fair loyal Christina!
He would send her the passage
money. But where was he to get it?
He started suddenly to his feet.
The moonbeams, striking his bag
gard face, wreathed 1t with q strange
beauty.
Jay skall dot" he murmured in
Broken English; 'ay skall see Messer
Yonson in da mornin' |"
Say, do you know what that ere
crazy Swede from Pony Gulch has
been up tor"
Chris Larkin, the blacksmith,
dropped the head of his hammer on
the anvil and supported himself on
the handle with his barred, sinewy
arms as he addressed this sentence
to Cal Higgins, farmer.
What now?" asked Higgins.
"blamedif that CHIP amt allus doin'
somethin' to set my teeth on aige.
What's the latest?'
''Gone an mortgaged himself to
Lawyer Johnson for $780,"
"Tain't possibleY
''T'is, too-but 1t can't be legal"
Legal nothin' But what can
you expect of Johnson? He don't
know the first prinseeples of law
that Teller. I'll take my afrerdavit
he can't tell search warrant from a
bale of hay. He drew up mortgage
on my bay steer, once, an how did