had died of fever. Its picturesque situation, on a rising ground
overlooking the river, was attractive to Mr. Bradford and his wife, and
it became their home. It consisted of one long room with a loft above,
from which it was separated by a floor of loosely-laid boards. The long
room was converted into two, by a cotton curtain running on iron rings;
and the loft was divided into two apartments in the same manner. When
these arrangements were completed, it afforded a temporary shelter for
the two families of Katie and Alice, including eight persons. In the
absence of closets, it was necessary to hang all sorts of articles from
the boards above. A dried salt fish was near neighbour to a very pretty
work-basket, and a bag of potatoes was suspended between a new quilt and
a handsome carpet-bag.
“I hope we shall soon be able to stow the salt fish and potatoes away
somewhere,” said Alice.
“Oh, never mind!” replied Katie, laughing. “If Hans Christian Andersen
would only come this way, he would make a fine story about the salt fish
falling in love with the pretty basket, and becoming thinner every day,
because his genteel neighbour preferred the carpet-bag, and took no
pains to conceal her disgust of his vulgar appearance and disagreeable
breath. _She_ listen to the vows of a salt fish? Not she! Did’nt he
know that her handsome relative, the carpet-bag, from Brussels, had done
as good as make proposals to her? Then the poor fish would be stimulated
to hunt up a pedigree. He might claim to have descended from Jonah’s
whale. He, on his part, might feel his dignity offended by the
neighbourhood of dirty potatoes. And the potatoes, like sturdy
republicans, might tell him they did not care a darn for his pedigree.
They should like to know whether he could _grow_; if he could’nt, he was
an old fogy, and the less he said the better; for he was among folks
that believed in growing, and did’nt believe in any thing else.” Alice
laughed at her conceits, and said it was a blessing to have such a
lively companion in a lonesome place.
As soon as the first hurry was over, the men of the family converted
packing-boxes into shelves for books and utensils, and made divers
grotesque-looking stools, with cotton cloth and unpeeled boughs of wood,
after the fashion of portable garden-chairs. There was talk of a table
to be hewn from a black walnut tree; but as yet the tree was growing,
and boards on barrel-tops must answer meanwhile. The salt-cellars were
broken when the wagons were pitching down some of the ravines; but the
shell of a turtle, which Kate’s brother Thomas had brought among his
traps, made a tolerable substitute. The women missed the smooth, white
table-cloths, and the orderly arrangement of dishes, to which they had
been accustomed; but they agreed with the men, that no food had ever
tasted so good as the corn-cakes, venison, and wild game cooked in that
humble cabin, where they mutually served each other in love. Then the
unpacking of the deep trunks and boxes, bringing to light memorials of
old places and dear friends, was a pleasure which only the far-off
emigrant from home may realize. Some mutual secrets had been kept, which
made little sunny ripples of surprise in their quiet stream of life.
Alice’s father and mother had packed their photograph likenesses in
Katie’s trunk, with a charge that they should not be opened till they
were settled in their new home. Katie had pressed mosses and ferns from
the old well near Uncle May’s garden-gate. They were twined with pendant
blossoms from the old elm, and woven into a garland round the words,
“From the well, whose waters Katie and Allie drank in childhood, and
from the old elm-tree from whose boughs they used to swing.” She had
framed it neatly with cones, gathered in a pine grove, where they had
walked together many an hour. These souvenirs of the dear old home so
stirred the deep fountains of feeling in her cousin’s soul, that she
burst into tears. But Katie soon made her laugh, by exhibiting a
crockery bear, which little Georgy had packed among the things, to
remind them of the living bear he expected to receive from Kansas.
Alice said she had a little secret too. She retreated to her division
of the room, and brought forth a pencil-drawing of the house where Katie
was born, and where her mother had always lived; and across the green
lane was Uncle May’s house, with the old well shaded by the elm. She had
a talent for drawing, and the dear familiar scene was brought faithfully
before the eye, though a little idealized by the softness of the
shading.
“Dear me!” exclaimed the vivacious Katie. “How can I put it where I can
see it often, yet contrive to keep it free from smoke and dust?” She
gave a forlorn kind of glance at the unplastered walls, through chinks
of which glimpses of the sky were visible. The fact was, neither they
nor their friends had been aware of the rough conditions of a settler’s
life; and the cousins had brought with them many pretty little
keepsakes, which they could find no places for. But it was a rule with
them to utter no complaints, to add to the weight of cares already
resting on their noble husbands. So the forlorn look quickly gave place
to a smile, as Kate kissed her cousin, and said, “I’ll tell you what I
will do, Allie dear. I will keep it in my heart.”
“It is a large place, and blesses all it keeps. That I can bear witness
to,” said John. * * * *
There was need that the women of Kansas should overlook their own
inconveniences, and be silent about their own sufferings; for a
thunder-cloud was gathering over the heads of the emigrants, and every
week it grew blacker and blacker. It needed less quickness of
observation than Katie possessed, to perceive, almost immediately after
their arrival, that they were surrounded by dangerous enemies.
Her husband, knowing the reliable strength of her character, did not
hesitate to confide to her his anxieties and fears for Kansas. But, as
far as possible, they kept danger out of sight in their conversations
with Alice. They had seen proof enough that she was strong in
self-sacrifice, with abundant fortitude to endure for those she loved;
but they knew that the life-blood of her soul was in her affections, and
that perils in her husband’s path would undermine the strength she
needed for her own. Her busy hands were almost entirely employed with
in-door occupations; sewing and mending for the whole family, keeping
the rooms tidy, and assisting about the daily cooking. If it was
necessary to purchase a pail, or pan, or any other household
convenience, it was Katie who sallied forth into Massachusetts street to
examine such articles as were for sale at the little shanty shops. If
water was wanted, when the men were absent, she put on her deep
cape-bonnet, and took the pail to the nearest spring, nearly a quarter
of a mile distant; for there was so much work pressing to be done in
Lawrence, that as yet there had been no time found to construct wells;
and the water of the river became shallow and turbid under the summer
sun. These excursions were at first amusing from their novelty, and she
came home with a lively account of odd-looking Missouri cattle-drovers,
and Indian squaws, with bags full of papooses strapped to their
shoulders. But gradually the tone of merriment subsided; and when she
had occasion to go into the street, she usually returned silent and
thoughtful. Fierce-looking Missourians, from the neighbouring border,
scowled at her as she passed, and took pleasure in making their horses
rear and plunge across her path. In the little shops she often found
more or less of these ruffians, half-tipsy, with hair unkempt, and
beards like cotton-cards, squirting tobacco-juice in every direction,
and interlarding their conversation with oaths and curses. Every one
that entered was hailed with the interrogatory, “Stranger, whar ar yer
from?” If their answer indicated any place north of the Ohio, and east
of the Mississippi, the response was, “Damn yer, holler-hearted Yankees!
What business have you in these diggens? You’d better clar out, I tell
yer.”
On one of these occasions, a dirty drunken fellow said to Kate, “They
tell me you are an all-fired smart woman. Are you pro-slave? or do you
go in for the abolitionists?”
Concealing the disgust she felt, she quietly replied, “I wish to see
Kansas a Free State, because I have her prosperity at heart.”
“Damn yer imperdence!” exclaimed the brute. “I should like to see you
chained up with one of our niggers. I’ll be cussed if I would’nt help to
do it.” And he finished by stooping down and squirting a quantity of
tobacco-juice into her face.
There was another Missourian in the shop, a tall burly looking cattle
drover, with a long whip in his hand. He seized the other roughly by the
arm, saying, “I tell you what, my boy, that’s puttin it on a little
_too_ thick. I’m pro-slave. If you’re for a far fight with the Yankees,
Tom Thorpe’s the man for yer work. But I’m down on all sich fixens. Let
the woman alone!”
The rowdy drew his bowie-knife, with a volley of oaths, and Katie darted
from the shop, leaving her purchases uncompleted. When she returned, she
found her mother busy about dinner, and Alice sitting at the window,
making a coarse frock. She raised her head and smiled, when her cousin
entered, but immediately looked out toward Mount Oread. When she first
saw that verdant slope, she had fallen in love with its beauty; then she
had been attracted by the classic name, conferred on it by a scholar
among the emigrants. There was something romantic in thus transporting
the Mountain Spirits of ancient Greece into the loveliest portions of
this new Western World. William often quoted Leigh Hunt’s verses, about
“The Oreads, that frequent the lifted mountains;
* * * * * * * and o’er deep ravines
Sit listening to the talking streams below.”
Then Governor Robinson’s house, on the brow of the hill, was a pleasant
object in the scenery; for he was a courteous and cultivated man, with a
good library, always at their disposal. There was so much quiet gentle
strength about him, that his presence seemed to ensure protection. The
last and strongest reason why Alice loved Mount Oread was that William
had taken land a little beyond it, and there was to be their future
home, snug as a bird’s nest, in a “sunny nook of greenery.” He was
building a cabin there, and every day she saw him descending toward
Lawrence, with the axe on his shoulder; and as he came nearer, she could
hear him whistling, “Home, sweet home.” She was watching for him now,
and hoping he would return in season for dinner. Therefore she had not
noticed the flurried manner with which Kate hastened to wash her face,
and wipe the tobacco stains from her bonnet. While she was thus
employed, the old lady said to her youngest daughter, “Flora, go and
call John and Thomas from the field. Dinner is nearly ready.”
“No, mother! No!” exclaimed Katie. “Never send _her_ out! _Never!_”
Perceiving that her quick emphatic manner had arrested the attention of
all the inmates of her dwelling, she added in a lower tone, “I will go,
myself.”
But her words had aroused a train of thoughts, which was becoming more
and more familiar to Alice. The men in the vicinity often came to ask
council of Mr. Bradford and Mr. Bruce; and of course their talk was
mainly concerning the neighbouring state of Missouri. She heard them
tell how ruffians and rowdies came over the border with bowie-knives and
pistols to drive the free citizens of Kansas away from the polls; to
deprive them of liberty to make their own laws, and compel them to be
governed by the code of Missouri, which in many ways violated their
moral sense. She heard them say that spies from Missouri were in every
neighbourhood, watching those emigrants who dared to say any thing in
favour of having the soil of Kansas free. Why was Katie so flushed and
flurried? Was the danger approaching nearer than she was aware of? She
turned anxiously toward Mount Oread, and longed for a sight of William.
What if he should not return till after night-fall? He, whose honest
mouth would never utter a word that was false to freedom, whatever might
be his personal risk? Unable to keep back the crowding tears, she
slipped behind the cotton curtain that screened their sleeping
apartment, and kneeling beside their rude couch, she prayed earnestly to
God to protect her husband.
William had not arrived when they sat down to dine, and his wife made
various pretences for rising to remove a plate, or bring a cup of water;
but in reality to look out upon Mount Oread. At last, she heard his
voice, and rushed out to meet him, with an outburst of emotion that
surprised them all. John shook his head mournfully, and sighed as he
said, “Poor Alice! How she idolizes him!”
Katie had the discretion not to mention her rencontre with the Border
Ruffian to any but her husband, who grew red in the face and clenched
his fist, while he listened, but immediately subsided into a calmer
mood, and said, “We must be careful never to lose sight of the best
interests of Kansas, in our resentment at the wrongs and insults we are
continually receiving. We will give these lawless rascals no excuse for
molesting us, and wait with patience for the American government to
protect its unoffending citizens.”
On the afternoon of the same day, a gawky lad, with a “long nine” in his
mouth, and hands in his trowsers pockets, came to the door, saying, “The
ole woman’s tuk wi’ fits almighty strong; and the ole man wants you to
cum, and bring along some o’ yer doctor’s stuff. He’s heern tell that
yer death on fits.”
Mrs. Bradford had become so accustomed to the South-Western lingo, that
she understood “the ole man” to be the lad’s father. She knew very well
that he was a Missouri spy, of the lowest order, an accomplice in many
villainous proceedings against the free-soil citizens of Kansas. She
felt a loathing of the whole family, not unmingled with resentment; but
she rose quickly to prepare the medicines; thinking to herself, “What
hypocrisy it is for me to profess to be a believer in Christianity, if
I cannot cheerfully return good for evil, in such a case as this.” She
administered relief to the sufferer, as tenderly as if she had been her
own sister; and the poor woman expressed gratitude for it, in her
uncouth way. When Kate remarked that they would feel more kindly toward
the Yankees, if they knew them better, she replied, “I allers tole my
ole man I wished they wouldn’t keep up such a muss. But Lor’, what the
use o’ speakin’. It’s jist like spittin’ agin the wind.”
That night, Mr. Bradford’s horse and saddle were stolen. They never knew
by whom; but they were afterward seen in Missouri.
In the midst of discouragements and dangers, the brave band of settlers
went on with their work. Better stores were erected, and, one after
another, the temporary cabins gave place to comfortable stone houses.
An Emigrant Aid Society had been formed in the North, whose object it
was to assist in the erection of mills, school-houses, and other
buildings, for the public benefit. Their motive was partly financial,
inasmuch as all such improvements rapidly increased the value of
property in Kansas; and they were well aware that the outward
prosperity, as well as the moral strength of a state depended greatly
upon encouraging emigrants to go from communities where they had been
accustomed to free institutions, educational privileges, orderly habits,
and salutary laws. Their motives in extending a helping hand to these
infant colonies, were both morally good and worldly wise. There was no
partiality in their management of affairs. Emigrants from the Southern
states shared their benefits equally with those from the North. Settlers
were pouring in from all sections of the country; but chiefly from the
North and West, because the hardy inhabitants of those states are always
ready for enterprise and toil. Many of them had large families of
children, and the small half-furnished tavern, called the Cincinnati
House, was quite insufficient to afford them shelter while cabins were
prepared for them. In the course of their first summer, John Bradford
and his band of pilgrims had the satisfaction of seeing a noble stone
hotel, of three stories, rise in Massachusetts street, making the place
beautiful with its glazed windows, and doors of polished black walnut.
Unfortunately, the only route to Kansas, by rail-road or steamboat,
passed through Missouri. Baggage-wagons were continually plundered, and
letters broken open and destroyed, by the Border Ruffians. Supplies of
provisions, purchased by the settlers, or sent to them by their friends,
went to enrich their enemies. Money enclosed in letters met with the
same fate. Still the settlers of Kansas pursued a pacific course toward
their persecutors. They came from communities where laws were reliable
for protection, and, following their old habits, they appealed to the
laws; desirous, at all hazards, not to involve the country in civil
war. This conscientious patriotism was not appreciated. The banditti on
the borders laughed it to scorn; while the slaveholding gentlemen and
statesmen, who used them as puppets, to do the disgraceful work they
were ashamed to do openly themselves, smiled at the Yankees’ reverence
for the Union, and successfully played their old game of practicing on
conscientious love of country, in order to tighten the serpent coil of
slavery more securely about the neck of freedom. Missourians had voted
their own creatures into most of the offices of Kansas. Some of them
pitched a tent in that Territory for a while, while others did not even
assume the appearance of residing there. From _such_ officers of justice
the citizens of Kansas could find no redress for the robberies and
wrongs continually inflicted on them, by the band of ruffians
commissioned to drive them out of the Territory, by any means that would
do it most effectually. Our wrongs from the British government were
slight, compared with theirs. Still these Western Colonies refrained
from revolution. They sent agents to Washington, with well-attested
evidence of their outrageous wrongs. They received fair words, and no
relief. Every day it became more evident that the President of the
United States was in league with the power that was crushing free
Kansas. The Missourians, emboldened by their knowledge of this fact,
played their bad game more and more openly. They paid men a dollar a
day, with plenty of whiskey, and free passage across the ferries, to go
into Kansas and vote down the rights of the citizens. More and more, the
conviction grew upon the people of Kansas that they could not trust the
government of the United States, and consequently had only their own
energies to rely upon. They published a paper called the Herald of
Freedom, in which they maintained the right of all American citizens to
choose their own magistrates, and make their own laws. They rejected the
legislators imposed upon them by the rabble of Missouri, at the point of
the bayonet. They declared that a large majority of the settlers were
desirous to have Kansas a Free State, and that they would maintain their
right to be heard. To this paper, John Bradford and William Bruce were
constant contributors, and Kate’s brother, Thomas, was diligent in
setting the types. Of course, the family became odious to those who were
bent on driving freedom out of Kansas.
A Convention of the free-soil citizens of the Territory was called at
Topeka. There were representatives from nearly all sections of the
Union. Emigrants from Carolina, Virginia, and Missouri, agreed with
emigrants from Ohio and Massachusetts, that the introduction of slavery
would prove disastrous to the prosperity of the state. They framed a
Constitution for Kansas, and chose legislators. Some required that free
coloured people should be excluded from the Territory, as well as
slaves. Others deemed that such a regulation would be an infringement
upon freedom, and urged that no man could calculate the future bad
consequences of introducing one wrong principle into the basis of their
government. No one urged this point more strenuously, than did William
Bruce, in his mild firm way. But Southern emigrants were opposed to that
view of the case, and the Convention, desirous to concede as far as
possible, yet unwilling to introduce such a clause into their
Constitution, concluded to leave that question to the votes of the
people.
It was a trying time for the women in Lawrence. The wisest and bravest
men were absent in Topeka, which was twenty-five miles further up the
river. The Convention excited great wrath in Missouri. They called
_themselves_ lovers of “law and order,” and denounced those as
“traitors” who dared to make other laws than those imposed upon them
with bowie-knives and revolvers. The wildest stories were circulated.
The most moderate of them was a rumour that Mr. Bruce insisted upon
having “niggers” become members of the legislature. This they regarded
as the greatest monstrosity a republican _could_ be guilty of; for they
were blind to the fact that hundreds of coloured slaves could be found,
who were more fit for the office, than the white ones they had appointed
to rule over Kansas. Insults multiplied, and curses and threats grew
louder. Every family in Lawrence went to bed each night with the
feeling that they might be murdered before morning.
When the delegates returned, John Bradford thought his wife seemed at
least ten years older, than when she came to Kansas, the preceding
spring. The baby, who could now toddle alone, had caught the trick of
fear, and hid himself, when his father knocked at the fastened door.
William was alarmed to find Alice so thin and pale, and to see her
gentle eyes look so large and frightened. He folded her closely in his
arms, and as she wept upon his bosom, he said, “O my wife! My loving and
generous wife! How I reproach myself for accepting the sacrifice you
offered! Yet had I foreseen this state of things, I never would have
consented that you should follow me into Kansas.”
“Don’t say that!” she exclaimed nervously. “It will be easier to die
with you, than it would have been to live without you. But oh, William,
why _need_ they persecute us so? There are thousands of acres of land
uncultivated in Missouri. What makes them covet _our_ land?”
“Ah, dearest, it is a complicated question, and you don’t understand it.
They care little for the land, except as a means of increasing their
political power. They want more Slave States, to be represented by
slaveholders in the councils of the Union; and they do _not_ want that
any more Free States should come into the Union, to balance their
influence. Therefore they are not content with stretching their
dominions to the Gulf of Mexico, and seizing Texas. They wish to grasp
the Northern Territories also, that they may be secure of keeping the
Free States in political subjection. It is a long story, my love. For
many years, they have been artfully availing themselves of every means
to increase their power. The antagonistic principles of slavery and
freedom have come to a death-grapple here in Kansas; and you, my
delicate little flower, are here to be trampled, in the struggle.”
Alice sighed, and wished she was more like Kate; for then she would not
be such a weight upon his spirits. But he declared that he would not for
the world have her in any way different from her own dear self. Then
they fell to talking about their future home, which was now in
readiness. Two of William’s brothers had arrived with their families. An
addition to the cabin had been built for one of them, and the other
would live within call. Katie was loth to part from her cousin; but she
said they would be far more comfortable in their new quarters, and as
for safety, there was safety nowhere; least of all, in Lawrence.
Gradually they fell into a more cheerful strain of conversation. The
husbands spoke hopefully, and really felt so; for they had strong faith
that their beautiful Kansas would become a free and prosperous state.