Year: 1877

Missouri river near the site which he
had chosen for his residence, and the rea-
son of his choice of this particular spot
had been the presence at its mouth of
sunken steamboat, its upper cabin just
emerging from the muddy water. A
band of the Colonel's companions, SYM
pathizing in the noble cause which had
led him to leave his plantation in Mis-
souri,, that of helping to drive all free
State" men from Kansas, had come over
to help establish him in his new home.
They broughta a gang of negroes with
them, and had raising" in which
a great deal of whiskey was consumed,
and the cabin of the sunken steamer
was raised and dragged to the top of the
knoll. Its side faced the road ,prensenting
the peculiar spectacle of house with
twenty front doors. After this it needed
not a great deal of work on the Colonel's
part to render it habitable, and it was
not long before he removed to it his
family and chattels. The former con-
sisted of his gentle wife and four boys,
and the latter of one mule, one COW, and
one " niggah,' faithful Aunt Pollyan-
thus. The Colonel made no attempt to
improve the place, but proceeded daily,
to Conflict, mounted on his mule, and
armed in the most ferocious manner, his
business being politics and gambling.


And yet, in spite of this chasm be-
tween them, human nature asserted its
claim, and the f" women folks'' of these
two homes became earnest friends
Though Mrs. May disapproved of the
shiftlessness of Mrs. Antoine's house.
keeping, of the dirty ruffled pillow
cases, of the painted plaster paris parrot
on the clock-shelf, of the number of the
Colonel's empty whiskey bottles and old
boots that strewed the ground opposite
the front entrance, and of the calmness
with which Mrs. Antoine regarded the
confusion of her kitchen and the ragged
condition of her sons clothing, while
she worked endless bands of very dirty
but very fine embroidery, yet she loved
the little woman with all her heart, and
had done so ever since the night she had
locked the drunken Colonel in one of
the staterooms, and battled death with
her until at dawn fifth little Antoine
lay in his mothers arms.


Don't talk to me-" she would say to
her husband. "One has only to look at
those boys to know there is pluck in
their mother" And if Gus Antoine,
the eldest, was sample of what the
rest would be, her words had their
weight. Gus was fifteen, clerk in a
bookstore at Conflict, and it was prin-
cipally from his earnings that the fam
lily were supported. They saw him walk
ing bravely to town early every morn
ing, carrying his dinner in little tin
pail, his jacket, whose buttons were all
old bachelors, in that no one of them
had mate, fastened tightly to the throat,
where it was met by turned paper COL
lar and fiashy magenta necktie. Squire
May liked the boy. Once, when he had
called on some errand, he stood for
long time puzzled and curious before
box of geological specimens which the
Squire had collected 4" What are them
things ?" he asked.


"Fossil leaves" replied Squire May.
81 give myself vacation every sum-
mer, and go off for week or two geol-
ogizing."


The boy asked a few more questions
before he left, which showed him bright
and observing. A fortnight he came
again.


''I've been reading all about them
things,' he said The sale of books was
not brisk at Conflict, and during the in
tervals of trade Gus had plenty of time
to read. Still, the Squire was surprised
to find that the boy had gone through a
volume of Hitchcock and one of Hugh
Miller, making himself as intelligent a
master of their contents as it was pos
sible to be without the aid of specimens.
II recited what read daytimes every
night to mother" he continued, "and
If father would only lend me Sarsaparil-
la, that's the mule, I'd like to go jolly
giving with yer"


I'll take you with me IN the buggy,
said the Squire, {" if you can obtain
leave of absence from the store"


Through their three years of neigh
borhood the friendship between the two
grew and strengthened, till at the time
at which your story finds them the
Squire remarked to his wife that he did
not believe he could think more Of Gus