The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-01-07

1t was years ago that the incident Oc-
CURED and the woman, who was the
Little Girl then, can still feel the ang-
uish of the occasion as though it were
but yesterday.
1t was in the early seventies when
travel was still done extensively by
wagon and the prairie roads were the
regular thoroughfares of journeying
made regular trips from southern Kan
sas to Florence to meet the Santa Fe
railway trains.
In those days if you were travelling
from Emporia south it must be by
wagon, horse or foot, for the steel
rails had not cObWebbed the country
| then as they have now-and many a
person who has since gazed at that
same country from the upholstered
seat Of a railway train saw it then, in
| the seventies, for the first time from
under the big bent bows of the can
vas top Of a prairie schooner.
1t was in the seventies that a prairie
schooner set out from Neosho Rapids
through the Flint Hills, past Matfield
Green, bound for Ell Dorado. The
wagon was new, the big bows bent in
graceful curves, the canvas top was
white, the horses were young and
strong, the weather was fine, as only
fine Kansas weather can be, and the
4 Young Mother and the Young Father
and the One Little Gfrl-a mighty Lit
tie Girl too--were anticipating q pleas
ant journey for they had started, so the
Little Girl thought, under most aus
piciouS circumstances.
The especially suspicious circum-
stance was a little, two-wheeled, red
/ toy wagon!
In those days the Kansas prairies
were not dotted with toy stores and
1 toys and little red wagons were mighty
scarce That Little Girl had never seen
such a toy wagon before and when her
aunt, who had brought it with her all
! the way from Topeka to Neosho Rap
ids had given it to the Little Girl she
was more delighted than many girl
would be now with half dozen wagons
and half a dozen bisque dolls.
The Little Girl,-a typical prairie tot
with blue bingham dress, a blue sun
bonnet and a coat of tan and a rug
| gedness that many another, not a prai-
RE girl would have given her al for
had never possessed such toy in all
She wanted to walk all the way
across the Flint hills. past hatfield
Green, through the corner of Green
wood county and triumphantly through
Rutler county to FL Dorado pulling that
little red wagoni She could hardly be
content with riding in the prairie
So she walked miles and miles be-
hind the prairie schooner and drew af-
ter her that little two wheeled toy wa
gon.
ad home at the end of the journey, she
would use that little wagon, with wa
oonbed no larger than cigar box, to
wheel It about the barnyard and col
Iect the eggs for her mother and how
She would haul fence staples in it to
hain her father with the barb wire
fenres She would do everything with
that little red wagon, would this Little
Girf. and she would have so much fun
with it. = $50.
miles and miles and her sturdy little
lees were almost worn out, she had
rIsTnhered into the prairie schooner and
gone to sleep and the little red wagon
had been put in the feedbox on the
rear end Of the schooner wagon. She
had been awakened at Matfield Green
and had run around to the rear of the
prairie schooner only to ind that the
little red wagon was-gonel
That Little Girl cried as If her heart
would break. She had never suffered
such a loss and she wondered If there
was any other red wagon in the world
like that and she hoped, oh she did
hope it would be found and she want
ed to 20 all the way back to find it.
She never found 1t and she never had
another little red wagon like that
again.
She can remember to this day how
her heart sank, how she wondered how
she could live and what there was to
live for after that wagon was lost and
she could not understand how her faith
err and her mother could continue the
journey on from Matfield Green