Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1904-02-09


Law caught the question Of her gaze.
And often enough, too, he found his
own questioning running back up the
water trails, and down the lakes and
across the wide ocean. in. a demand
which, fiercer and fiercer as 1t grew,
he yet remained too bitter and too
proud to put to the proof by any means
now within his power. Strange
enough, savage enough, hopeless
enough, was this wild home of his in
the wilderness Of the Messasebe.
The smoke of the new settlement
rose steadily day by day, but it gave
signal for no watching enemy. All
about stretched the pale green ocean
of the grasses, dotted by many wild
flowers, nodding and bowling like bits
Of fragile fiotsam on the surface of a
continually rolling sea. The little
groves of timber, scattered here and
there, sheltered from the summer sun
the wild cattle Of the plains. The
shorter grasses hid the coveys Of the
prairie hens, and on the marsh-grown
bayou banks the wild duck led her
brood. A great land. rich, fruitful
one, was this that lay about these adj
venturers.
A soberness had come over the habit
Of the master mind Of this little col
ony. His hand took up the ak, and
forgot the sword and gun. Day after
day he stood looking about him, exam
lining and studying In little all the
strange things which he saw; seeking
to learn as much as might be Of the
timorous savages, who In time began
to straggle back to their ruined wis
lagos; talking, as best he might,
through such interpreting as was pos
sible. with savages who came from
the west of the Messasebe, and from
the south and from the far southwest;
hearing, and learning and wondering
of land which seemed as large as
all the earth, and various as all the
lands that lay beneath the sun-that
west, SO glorious, SO new, SO bound
less, which was yet TO be the home of
countless hearth-fires and the sites of
myriad fields Of corn. Let others hunt,
and fish, and rob the Indians Of their
furs, after the accepted fashion of the
time: as for John Law, he must look
about him, and think, and watch this
growing of the corn.
He saw it fairly from its beginning
this growth of the maize, this plant
which never yet had grown on Scotch
or English soil; this tall, beautiful
broad bladed, tender tree, the very en-
blem of all fruitfulness. He saw here
and there, dropped by the careless
hand of some departed Indian woman
the little terminating mat sss ses asaus JUS Is
through the soil, half broken by The
tomahawk. He saw the clustering
green shoots-numerous, in the sigr
of plenty-all crowding together and
clamoring for light, and life, and air
and room. He saw the prevailing OF
the tall and strong upthrusting stalks
after the way of life; saw the others
dwarf and whiten, and yet cling on al
the base of the holder stem, parasites
worthless, yet existing, after the way
of life.
He saw the great central stalks
spring boldly up. so swiftly that 1t al
most seemed possible to count the
successive leaps Of progress. He saw
the strong-ribbed leaves thrown out
waving thousand hands of cheerful
welcome and assurance-these blades
of the corn, so much mightier than any
blades Of steel. He saw the broad
reckoning banners Of the pale tassels
bursting out atop Of the stalk, token
OF fecundity and OF the future. He
caught the wide-driven pollen as IL
whitened upon the earth, borne by the
parent west wind, mother of increase
He saw the thickening of the greer
leaf at the base, Its swelling, its
growth and expansion, till the indefi-
mite enlargement showed at length the
incipient ear.
He noted the faint brown Of the ends
Of the sweetly-enveloping silk Of the
ear, pale-green and often underneath
the sheltering and protecting husk
He found the sweet and milk-white
tender kernels, row upon row, forming
rapidly beneath the husk, and saw al
length the hardening and darkenine
OF the husk at its free end, which told
that man might pluck and eat.
And then he saw the fading of the
tassels, the darkening Of the silk and
the crinkling Of the blades; and there
borne on the strong parent stem, he
noted now the many full-rowed ears
protected by their husks and heralded
by the tassels and the blades Come
come ye, all We people! Enter in, 70,
will feed We ALL" This was the SONG
of the maize, Its invitation, its coun-
sci, its promise.
Under the warped lodge frames
which the fires OF the Iroquois had
spared, there were yet visible clusters
OF the ears, Of last years corn. Here
under his own eye, were growing YET
other ears, ripe for the harvesting and
ripe for the coming growth. A strange
spell fell upon the soul Of Law
Visions crossed his mind, born in the
soft warm air OF these formulating
winds, Of this strange yet peaceful
scene.
At times he stood and looked out
from the door Of the palisade, when
the prairie mists were rising in the
morning at the mandate Of the sun. and
to his eyes these waving seas of grasses
all seemed reckoning fields OF corn
These smokes, coming from the broken
tepees of the timid trlbesmen, surely
they arose from the roofs of happy
and contented homes! These wreaths
and wraiths of the twisting and wide
stalking mists, surely these were the
captains Of general husbandry! All