The National tribune., 1901-10-17
\ MISSOURI PIONEER.
Continued from first page

sports to dem fool boys"
Small fields grew to larger fields. small
houses to greater houses. The first yield
from the soil was abundant and loading
the wagon with bags of wheat and corn,
they went a three days journey to wa
ter MILL" where their grain was ground
into meal and -four.
| The McNair family was quite isolated
in the forest home. The sound of the
church going belP' had never fallen on
those wooded hills and shady dells.
Sometimes they harnessed the horses to
the lightest wagon and drove many miles
to "hear preaching" by some frontier mis-
sionaTy. But the Sabbaths we're usually
spent at home. Mr.. McNair would call
the family about him, blacks as well as
whites, and read chapter In the family
Bible, then all would sing some familiar
hymn, led by Big Jack, who was
material bawn singer" after which Mr..
McNair offered a prayer, and admonished
all that 1t was day of rest, to be kept
holy.
But George and the young negro boys
usually forgot this pious admonition. for
scarce an hour would elapse ere they had
stolen off to go hunting or fishing. If their
Sabbath fishing or hunting expeditions
proved fruitful they had trouble to dis
pose of their products. Mr.. or Mrs. McNair
would as soon think of taking poison as to
eat venisOn or fish taken on Sunday. But
| the boys aug cool cave III the WOODS, III
| which to hide their Sunday game, and
made a pool in which to put their Sun.
day fish, always bringing it in on Mon
| day. 1t required many pious fibs to de-
ceive the good parents.
Their nearest neighbor lived nine miles
AWAY, so visitors were not numerous
| enough to be burdensome. Mr.. Hezekiah
| Van Loon, that mysterious wanderer
| through the Territory, had called two or
three times to 'stay all night" and tell
them in his solemn way that he was soon
going home.
His story gradually leaked out. The
unfortunate man, when young and fresh
! from college, met that accomplished mag
netic but mysterious individual, Aaron
scheme which today is an unsolved
mystery; though it no doubt had the dis
solution Of the Union for its object.
With number of other young men Van
Loon had been induced to join Burr. In
flatboats they drifted down the Ohio and
the Mississippi, until the Burr expedition
collapsed, and they found themselves
prisoners. After a few weeks they were
acquitted.
Many of them being young men from
New York city, were naturally not at all
fitted for the rugged life of pioneers. They
were men of education and refinement,
who now found themselves thrown into a
of getting back to their far-off homes on
the Atlantic coast. Their situation was
really deplOrable. Left as they were with
out money, hundreds of miles away from
home, surrounded by people with ways and
manners wholly different from their own.
and yet compelled to live with them. it |
became q serious question how they should |
earn their livelihood. They could not cut
down the great trees, nor pillow the
prairies, nor hunt and trap, as did the
hardy frontiersmen. OF what avail was
education in this wilderness, where muscle,
more than brains, was in demand? At |
last one of them suggested that they turn |
teachers. They decided to do so; and. ac
cording to the statement Of an official Of
the time, they supplied the Territory with
dancing masters, writing masters, and |
for many years.
In company with party of these timer
ant school-masters, Van Loon had wander
ed into the Territory of Missouri, where
he occasionally got up" a writing class
neighborhoods, which was taught in some
private log cabin" Mt night, for they had
no school house. Sometimes he was so
successful as to secure few day scholars;
but the remuneration had never been suffi-
cient to enable him to return. Going home
was his main thought and chief topic of |
Long years had passed since he left il
in the full flush of young manhood, but |
the dear old place, with its green hills ard |
comfortable houses, was as firmly i'm
pressed on his mind as that fatal morn he |
left
1t was also said he left a dark-eyed girl !
behind, who shed tears at his departure. |
Filled with ambition, he had promised her |
he would return conqueror, highly ex-
aited in the councils of a new empire that |
was to be the glory of the earth. He had |
not heard a word from her since he left. |
So far beyond recall was he, that no let
ter had ever passed between them. Yet |
he thought of her still as the guileless |
maiden he left. on whose check the bloom
of girlhood still fingered. One day as he
wandered through the forest and stopped |
to drink from a spring, he beheld his
image reflected in the water. His hair !
was streaked with gray. and his face had |
lines of care upon it. but he could think
of Bessie only in her girlhood.
1t was to George he finally told his
story, for in the youth he found more
than among older people Poor
George sympathized with him, but was
unable to render him any assistance in the
accomplishment of his main object in
life, to go home.
George in his minds eve" often saw
the dark-eyed Bessie. waiting, faithfully
waiting all these years, looking for the
return of him to whom she had given her
heart, and had he possessed the means
would have sent the wanderer home.
Occasionally a hamburger passed the
McNair house, always staying all night.
of course, as there was no other near.
Then movers" often camped near. much
to the delight of the McNairs, who visited
their camps on the creek and received their
visits in return. The latch-string always
hung out to all who passed, for. in their
isolation. visitor was welcome.
Mr.. Jennings, their nine-mile neighbor
''hitched his horses to the
wagon" and brought his family over for
4 whole days visit. Such occasions were
red-letter days in the memory of old and
young.
The boys spent the period in canvassing
the relative values of their coon dogs,
while the farmers examined the soil, dis
cussed its merits, and wondered if the
would ever be settled up enough to
Justify a church or school-house.
Mr.. Jennings had been in the Territory
much longer than McNair, and was on TO
The customs and manners of the pioneers
He knew all the unwritten laws, such as
he whose gun first drew the blood was
entitled to the hide and horns. no matter
Who killed the deer. He knew all the
rules of arbitration between neighborS in
ease of disputes, and how to make them
shake hands and make up" and many
more customs obsolete in our day.
There was one person on the frontier at
that day to be avoided. He called him !
The land pirate. No buccaneer who plowed
The Spanish-main was more dreaded than