THE FIRE SPREADS.
One fine morning in May, Mr. Bryant was standing at his front gate
watching for his brother-in-law, Mr. Howell, to come down the street.
He held a newspaper in his hand, and with this, loosely rolled, he was
impatiently tapping on the gate as Mr. Howell drew near. Evidently
something had happened to disturb him.
"See here, Aleck," he exclaimed, as soon as his brother-in-law was
within the sound of his voice, "I can stand this sort of thing no
longer. I'm bound to go to Kansas. I've been thinking it over, and I
have about made up my mind to go. Brubaker will take my store and the
good-will of the concern. Oscar is wild to go, and his mother is
perfectly able to take care of the house while I am getting ready for
her to come out. What d'ye say? Will you go too?"
"Well," said Mr. Howell, slowly, "you nearly take my breath away!
What's happened to stir you up so?"
"Just listen to this!" cried the other, "just listen!" and, unfolding
his newspaper, he read, with glowing cheeks and kindling eyes, an
account of an attack made by some of the "pro-slavery men," as they
were named, on a party of free-State immigrants who had attempted to
cross the river near Kansas City. His voice trembled with excitement,
and when he had finished reading, he asked his companion what he
thought of that.
Mr. Howell looked pensively down the street, now embowered with the
foliage of early summer, noted the peaceful aspect of the village, and
the tranquil picture which gardens, cottages, and sauntering groups of
school-children presented, and then said slowly, "I never was much of
a hand at shooting, Charles, leastways, shooting at folks; and I don't
know that I could take steady aim at a man, even if I knew he was a
Border Ruffian out gunning for me. But I'm with you, Charles. Charlie
and Sandy can do a heap sight better in Kansas, after things get
settled, than they can here. This place is too old; there's too much
competition, and the boys will not have any show if they stay here.
But what does Amanda say?"
Now, Amanda was Mr. Bryant's wife, Mr. Aleck Howell's sister. When
Aleck asked this question, the two men looked at each other for a
moment, queerly and without speaking.
"Well, she'll hate to part with Oscar; he's the apple of her eye, as
it were. But I guess she will listen to reason. When I read this piece
in the paper to her this morning, at the breakfast-table, she was as
mad as a wet hen. As for Oscar, he's so fired up about it that he is
down in the wood-shed chopping wood to blow off steam. Hear him?" And
Mr. Bryant laughed quietly, notwithstanding his rising anger over the
news of the day.
At that moment Sandy came whooping around the corner, intent on
overtaking a big yellow dog, his constant companion,--Bose by
name,--who bounded along far in advance of the boy. "See here, Sandy,"
said his uncle, "how would you like to go to Kansas with your father,
Oscar, Charlie, and myself?"
"To Kansas? shooting buffaloes, deer, Indians, and all that? To
Kansas? Oh, come, now, Uncle Charles, you don't mean it."
"But I do mean it, my laddie," said the elder man, affectionately
patting the freckled cheek of the lad. "I do mean it, and if you can
persuade your father to go along and take you and Charlie with him,
we'll make up a party--just we five--that will scare the Border
Ruffians 'way into the middle of next year." Then, with a more serious
air, he added, "This is a fight for freedom, my boy, and every man and
every boy who believes in God and Liberty can find a chance to help.
I'm sure _we_ can." This he said with a certain sparkle of his eye
that may have meant mischief to any Border Ruffian that might have
been there to see and hear.
As for Sandy, he turned two or three hand-springs by way of relieving
his feelings; then, having once more assured himself that the two men
had serious thoughts of migrating to Kansas, he rushed off to the
wood-shed to carry the wonderful news to Oscar. Dropping his axe, the
lad listened with widened eyes to the story that Sandy had to tell.
"Do you know, Sandy," he said, with an air of great wisdom, "I thought
there was something in the wind. Oh, I never saw father so roused as
he was when he read that story in the Chicago _Press and Tribune_ this
morning. Why, I thought he'd just get up and howl when he had read it
out to mother. Jimmini! Do you really suppose that he will go? And
take us? And Uncle Aleck? Oh, wouldn't that be too everlastingly bully
for anything?" Oscar, as you will see, was given to the use of slang,
especially when under great excitement. The two boys rushed back to
the gate, where the brothers-in-law were still talking eagerly and in
undertones.
"If your mother and Aunt Amanda will consent, I guess we will go,"
said Mr. Bryant, with a smile on his face as he regarded the flushed
cheeks and eager eyes of Sandy and Oscar. Sandy's father added: "And
I'll answer for your mother, my son. She and I have talked this thing
over many a time, more on your account and Charlie's than for the sake
of 'bleeding Kansas,' however. I'm bound to say that. Every man is in
honor bound to do his duty by the country and by the good cause; but
I have got to look after my boys first." And the father lovingly laid
his hand on Sandy's sturdy shoulder. "Do you think you could fight, if
the worst comes to the worst, Sandy, boy?"
Of course the lad protested confidently that he could fight; certainly
he could protect his rights and his father's rights, even with a gun,
if that should be found necessary. But he admitted that, on the whole,
he would rather shoot buffaloes and antelope, both of which species of
large game he had already learned were tolerably plentiful in Kansas.
"Just think of it, Oscar, we might have some real Indian-fighting out
there, like that Father Dixon and the rest of the old settlers had in
the time of the Black Hawk war."
His father assured him, however, that there was no longer any danger
from the red man in Kansas. The wild Indians were now far out on the
frontier, beyond the region to which emigrants would probably go in
search of homestead lands for settlement. Sandy looked relieved at
this explanation. He was not anxious for fighting with anybody. Fun
was more to his liking.
The two mothers, when they were informed of the decision of the male
members of the family, made very little opposition to the emigration
scheme. In fact, Mrs. Howell had really felt for some time past that
her boys would be better provided for in a new country. She had been
one of the "old settlers" of Dixon, having been brought out from the
interior of New York when she and her brother were small children. She
had the same spirit of adventure that he had, and, although she
remembered very well the privations and the discomforts of those early
days, it was more with amusement than sorrow that she recalled them to
mind, now that they were among the traditions of long-past years. The
two young Howells were never weary of hearing their mother tell of the
time when she killed a wildcat with her father's rifle, or of her
walking fifteen miles and back to buy herself a bonnet-ribbon to wear
to her first ball in the court-house. Now her silent influence made it
easier for the Kansas Exodus (as they already called their scheme) to
be accepted all around.
The determination of the two families to migrate made some stir in the
town. It was yet a small place, and everybody knew every other body's
business. The Bryants and Howells were among the "old families," and
their momentous step created a little ripple of excitement among their
friends and acquaintances. The boys enjoyed the talk and the gossip
that arose around them, and already considered themselves heroes in a
small way. With envious eyes and eager faces, their comrades
surrounded them, wherever they went, asking questions about their
outfit, their plans, and their future movements. Every boy in Dixon
looked on the three prospective boy settlers as the most fortunate of
all their young playfellows.
"I wish my father would catch the 'Kansas fever,'" said Hiram Fender,
excitedly. "Don't you suppose your father could give it to him,
Charlie? Do you suppose your uncle would take me along if Dad would
let me go? Oh, wouldn't that be just gaudy, if I could go! Then there
would be four of us boys. Try it on him."
But the two families resolutely attended to their own business, asking
help from nobody, and not even so much as hinting to anybody that it
would be a good thing for others to go with them to the Promised Land.
The three boys were speedily in the midst of preparations for their
migration. It was now well along in the middle of May. If they were to
take up land claims in Kansas and get in a crop, they had no time to
spare. The delightful excitement of packing, of buying arms and
ammunition, and of winding up all the small concerns of their life in
Dixon made the days pass swiftly by. There were all the details of
tents for camping-out, provisions for the march, and rough clothing
and walking gear for the new life beyond to be looked after.
Some of the notions of the boys, in regard to what was needed and what
was to be expected from the land beyond, were rather crude. And
perhaps their fathers were not in all cases so wise as they thought
themselves. The boys, however, cherished the idea that absolutely
everything they should require in Kansas must be carried from
Illinois. "Why," said the practical Mr. Howell, "if we cannot buy
ploughs, cattle, and seed, cheaper in Missouri than we can here, we
can at least save the labor and cost of transportation. We don't want
to haul a year's provisions, either. We expect to raise something to
eat, don't we?"
Charlie, to whom this remonstrance was addressed, replied, "Well, of
course we can raise some garden truck, and I suppose we can buy bacon
and flour cheaper in Missouri than here."
"Then there's the game," interrupted Oscar and Sandy, both in one
breath. "Governor Robinson's book says that the country is swarming
with game," added Sandy, excitedly.
The boys had devoured a little book by Mr. Robinson, the free-State
Governor of Kansas, in which the richness of the Promised Land was
glowingly set forth.
"Much time we shall have to shoot buffaloes and antelope when we are
breaking up the sod and planting corn," Mr. Howell answered with a
shade of sarcasm in his voice.
"And we may have to fire at bigger game than either of those," added
Mr. Bryant, grimly.
"Border Ruffians?" asked Sandy, with a feeble attempt at a grin. His
mother shuddered and hastily went out of the room. The Kansas scheme
seemed no longer pleasant to her, when she read the dreadful stories
of violence and bloodshed with which some of the Western newspapers
were teeming. But it was settled that most of the tools needed for
farming could be bought better in Missouri than in Illinois; the long
haul would be saved, and the horses with which they were to start
could be exchanged for oxen to good advantage when they reached "the
river." They had already adopted the common phrase, "the river," for
the Missouri River, then generally used by people emigrating
westward.
"But perhaps the Missourians will not sell you anything when they know
that you are free-State men," suggested Mrs. Bryant, timidly, for this
was a family council.
"Oh, well," answered Mr. Howell, sturdily, "I'll risk that. I never
saw a man yet with anything to sell who wouldn't sell it when the
money was shaken in his face. The newspapers paint those border men
pretty black, I know; but if they stop to ask a man's politics before
they make a bargain with him, they must be queer cattle. They are more
than human or less than human, not Americans at all, if they do
business in that way." In the end they found that Mr. Howell was
entirely right.
All was settled at last, and that, too, in some haste, for the season
was rapidly advancing when planting must be attended to, if they were
to plant that year for the fall harvest. From the West they heard
reports of hosts of people pouring into the new Territory, of land
being in great demand, and of the best claims near the Missouri being
taken by early emigrants. They must be in a hurry if they were to get
a fair chance with the rest and a fair start on their farm,--a farm
yet existing only in their imagination.
Their wagon, well stored with clothing and provisions, a few books,
Oscar's violin, a medicine chest, powder, shot, and rifle-balls, and
an assortment of odds and ends,--the wagon, so long a magical
repository of hopes and the most delightful anticipations, was ready
at last. It stood at the side gate of Mr. Bryant's home, with a "spike
team" (two horses at the pole, and one horse for a leader) harnessed.
It was a serious, almost solemn, moment. Now that the final parting
had come, the wrench with which the two families were to be broken up
seemed harder than any of the members had expected. The two mothers,
bravely keeping up smiling faces, went about the final touches of
preparations for the lads' departure and the long journey of their
husbands.
Mr. Howell mounted the wagon with Sandy by his side; Mr. Bryant took
his seat with the other two boys in an open buggy, which they were to
drive to "the river" and there trade for a part of their outfit. Fond
and tearful kisses had been exchanged and farewells spoken. They drove
off into the West. The two women stood at the gate, gazing after them
with tear-dimmed eyes as long as they were in sight; and when the
little train disappeared behind the first swale of the prairie, they
burst into tears and went into the house which was now left unto them
desolate.
It was a quiet party that drove over the prairie that bright and
beautiful morning. The two boys in the buggy spoke occasionally in
far-off-sounding voices about indifferent things that attracted their
attention as they drove along. Mr. Howell held the reins, with a
certain stern sense of duty on his dark and handsome face. Sandy sat
silently by his side, the big tears coursing down his freckled
cheeks.