And unto thee, in Freedom’s hourOf sorest need, God gives the powerTo ruin or to save,To wound or heal, to blight or bless,With fruitful soil, or wilderness,A free home, or a grave.J. G. Whittier.
And unto thee, in Freedom’s hourOf sorest need, God gives the powerTo ruin or to save,To wound or heal, to blight or bless,With fruitful soil, or wilderness,A free home, or a grave.J. G. Whittier.
And unto thee, in Freedom’s hourOf sorest need, God gives the powerTo ruin or to save,To wound or heal, to blight or bless,With fruitful soil, or wilderness,A free home, or a grave.J. G. Whittier.
“Youare silent to-night, William,” said Alice May to her lover, as they walked through a green lane, toward the setting sun.
“Yes, dearest,” he replied, “I have that on my mind which makes me thoughtful.” After a pause, he added, “That book I was reading to you, before these golden-edged clouds tempted us out into the fields, has made a very strong impression on me. I never before realized how much depends on the state of mind we are in when we read. The story of our forefathers was all familiar to me; and I always reverenced the Puritans; but the grandeur of their character never loomed up before my mental vision as it does now. With all their faults, they were a noble set of men and women.”
“And what has anointed your eyes to see this more clearly than ever to-night?” asked Alice.
“All the while I was reading, I was thinking of John Bradford’s project of going to Kansas; and, while we have been walking in the fields, my eyes have involuntarily turned away from the glorious sunset clouds, to glance at the neat dwellings dotted all over the landscape; to the mill whirling sparkling water-drops into the air; to the school-house, with its broad play-ground; to the church-spire, gleaming brightly in the sun. All these we owe to those heroic pilgrims, who left comfortable homes in England and came to a howling wilderness to establish a principle of freedom; and what they have done for Massachusetts, John Bradford and his companions may do for Kansas. It is a glorious privilege to help in laying the foundation of states on a basis of justice and freedom.”
“I see that John has magnetized you with his enthusiasm,” she replied; “and he has magnetized cousin Kate also. How brave she is, to think of following him, with their little child!”
“Kate is hopeful by temperament,” said William; “but I think she is hardly more brave than you are. You are both afraid of a snake and a gun.”
“I was thinking more of the long journey, the parting from friends, and living among strangers, than I was of snakes and guns,” replied Alice. “Then everybody says there are so many discomforts and hardships in a new country. And the Indians, William! Only think of going within sound of the Indian war-whoop!”
“The Indians are in a very different state now,” he replied, “from what they were when the Puritan women followed their husbands into the wilderness of this new world. They are few in numbers now. Their spirit has been tamed by accumulated wrongs, and they are too well aware of the power of the United States’ government, to make any aggressions upon those who are under its protection. Besides, you know it is my opinion that the Indians never would have made unprovoked aggressions. Who can read Catlin’s account, without being struck with the nobility of character often manifested by their much-injured race? I am fully persuaded that it is easy to make firm friends of the Indians, by treating them with justice and kindness, and with that personal respect, which they so well know how to appreciate.” He pressed her arm to his side, and took her hand within his, as he added, “You seemed greatly to admire that young Puritan bride, who cheerfully left home and friends behind her, and crossed the tempestuous ocean, to brave cold and hunger by her husband’s side, in a wilderness where wolves and savages were howling.”
Her hand trembled within his; for something in the earnestness of his look, and the tender modulation of his tones, suddenly revealed to her whatwas passing in his mind. She knew he was not thinking of cousin John’s wife, while he spoke thus of the pilgrim’s bride. It was the first time that such a possibility had been suggested to her mind; and it made the blood run cold in her veins. After a painful pause, she said, with a forced calmness of voice, “We often admire virtues we are not strong enough to imitate.”
He pressed her hand, and remained silent, till an outburst of tears made him stop suddenly, and fold her to his heart. “Don’t weep, my beloved,” he said, “I will never require, or even ask, such a sacrifice of you. Such a delicate flower as you are needs to be sheltered from the blast and the storm. But you have conjectured rightly, dearest, that my heart is set upon accompanying these emigrants. I feel that all there is of manhood within me, will be developed by the exigencies of such a career. My character and my destiny will grow more grand with the responsibilities that will devolve upon me. If I remain here, I never shall do half I am capable of doing for myself and for posterity. To speak the plain truth, dear Alice, I have something of the old Puritan feeling, that God calls me to this work. You have promised to be my wife within a few weeks; but I absolve you from that promise. If you prefer it, I will go and prepare a comfortable home for you in that new region, and endeavour to draw a circle of our mutual friendsaround me, before I ask you to leave your New England home.”
She looked up at him, through her tears, with a half-reproachful glance, which seemed to say, “Do you then suppose there can be any hardship so great, as separation from the one I love best in the world?”
He understood the mute appeal, and answered it by saying, “Don’t be rash, clear Alice. Reflect upon it till next Sunday evening, and then tell me what is your decision. I shall not love you one particle the less if you tell me that years must pass before you can be the partner of my life. No duties, no excitements, no lapse of time, can remove your image from my heart.”
Few more words were spoken, as they returned homeward, lighted by the crescent moon. It was not until long after midnight that Alice fell asleep, to dream of standing by a wide chasm, vainly stretching her hand toward William, on the other side.
During the following days, she asked no counsel, save of God and her mother. Her mother laid her hand tenderly on her head, and said, “I dare not advise you. Follow your own heart, my child;” and when she prayed to God, she seemed to hear an echo of those words. She saw William often, but she spoke no word to dissuade him from his purpose. Had he been going to California to dig gold, she would have had much to say in favour ofthe humblest home under the protection of the old order-loving Commonwealth; but he had spoken so seriously of his sense of duty, that her womanly nature reverenced the manliness of his convictions; and she prayed thathiscourage to dare might be equalled byherfortitude to endure. It rained heavily on Sunday evening, so that the lovers could not take their accustomed walk; and the presence of others prevented a confidential interview. But when they parted at the door, Alice slipped a small package into William’s hand. When he arrived at home, he opened it with nervous haste, and found a small Bible, with a mark within it. An anchor was embroidered on the mark, with the wordFaithbeneath it; and his eye was caught by pencil lines on the page, encircling the words: “Where thou goest, I will go; where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.” “God bless her!” he exclaimed. “Now I can go forward with an undivided heart.” He kissed the anchor again and again, and, bowing his head on his hands, he wept as he had not wept since boyhood. To his deep and earnest nature, love and duty were sacred realities.
Great was the joy of cousin Kate and her husband, when it was known that William Bruce had determined to join the band of emigrants, and that Alice had acquiesced. William was a young man of such good judgment and stedfast principles, thatthey all felt he would be a balance-wheel in the machinery of any society where he moved. John Bradford was equally good and true, but his temperament induced more volubility of speech, and more eagerness of action. When the band of emigrants heard of William’s decision, they said laughingly to each other, “Now we shall have both Moses and Aaron to guide us into Canaan.” Kate’s widowed mother, and a younger brother and sister, resolved to join the enterprising band. A little nephew of five years old was of the same mind; and when told that he was too small to be of any use, he declared himself fully able to catch a bear. Alice’s father and mother had prospective plans of following their daughter, accompanied by their oldest son, in case those who went before them should send up a good report of the land. Her adhesive affections suffered terribly in this rupture of old ties. But in such natures love takes possession of the whole being. She would have sacrificed life itself for William. All her friends knew it was harder for her than for others, to go into a strange land and enter into entirely new modes of existence. Therefore, they all spoke hopefully to her, and no one but William ever presented the clouded side of the picture to her view. He did it from a conscientious scruple, lest she should go forward in the enterprise with eyes blinded to its difficulties. But the hardships he described in such tender tones, neverseemedlike hardships. Hiswarnings were always met with the affectionate response, “What a proud and happy woman I shall be, dear William, if I can do any thing to sustain you through the trials you will have to encounter.” She never spoke despondingly, never told the fears that sometimes swarmed in her imagination. If she could not strengthen him, she at least would not unnerve him, she said to herself; and as for cousin Kate, she would have been ashamed to acknowledge toherwhat a faint heart was beating within her bosom. Kate, who had earned her own living ever since she was sixteen, and assisted her widowed mother, and educated her younger brother and sister, in a manner well adapted to make them useful and active members of society, was just the woman to emigrate to the West. Sometimes Alice sighed, and wished she was more like Kate. She did not know how many anxious thoughts were concealed under her cousin’s cheerful tones, her bright frank smile, and her energetic preparations for departure.
Thick and fast came in the parting memorials from relatives and schoolmates; and what showers of tears fell upon them as they were stowed away in the closely packed chests! That last night at the old homesteads, oh, how the memories crowded upon those suffocated hearts! When Alice stole out in the moonlight, and wept, while she kissed the old elm, from whose boughs she had swung inchildhood, she did not know that the roots were already moistened with Katie’s tears.
To the experienced and the thoughtful, all weddings are solemn occasions; for when they see the young unmooring their boat from its old fastenings, and floating away so gaily on the sun-rippled stream, they know full well that shadows are ahead, and that many a rock lies hidden under the bright waters. The marriage of William and Alice was solemn even to sadness; for they were to depart for Kansas on the morrow. The farewell moment had been so dreaded for days preceding, that all felt as if it would be a relief to have the agony over. Alice clung to her parents as the drowning cling. The mother lifted up her voice and wept, and the old father choked, as he strove to say, “Very pleasant hast thou been unto me. God bless thee, my child.” But cousin Katie, whose mission it was to strengthen everybody, came up and pressed their hands, and said “Good bye, dear uncle; good bye, dear aunt. We’ll make a beautiful home for you in Kansas; and Willie and Ally will come to bring you to us.”
As they mounted the wagons, children, who used to attend Mrs. Bradford’s school, came up with bunches of violets; and the little nephew, who thought himself such a mighty hunter, called out, “send me a bear!”
“Oh yes, Georgy,” replied Kate. “Will you have him roasted?”
“I want to tie him up in thedarden, and feed him,” shouted George. But no one heard him. The wagons had rolled away before he finished the sentence; and those who watched them forgot that any thing else existed.
The last glimpse of Alice showed her head bowed down on her husband’s shoulder, her waist encircled by his arm. The last tones of Katie’s voice had been strong and clear; and no one but her kind-hearted John saw how the tears rained down on her infant’s face, as they rode through their native village. They had never fully realized, until now, how beautiful were the elms in the delicate verdure of spring; how precious were the golden blossoms profusely strewn over the meadows; how happy and safe the homes seemed to nestle in the scenery. As they passed the church, all turned and looked back at that place of pleasant meetings with relatives, friends and neighbours.
“They will miss our voices in the choir, dear William,” said Alice.
“Yes,” he replied; “but, by the blessing of God, we will sing hymns in the wilderness, and waken musical echoes among the silent hills.”
“And we will sing ‘Home Sweet Home’ together,” said Alice, with a faint smile.
“We’ll all join in the tune,” said Katie; “and John, who is ‘up to all sort o’ fixens’, as the Westerners say, will make some new variations, on purpose for the occasion.”
Then came the bustle of depôts, the whizzing of steam, and visions of fields and hills racing away. As usual, the hearts that went recovered serenity sooner than the hearts left behind. The new excitement of travelling waked up hope, who shoved memory aside for awhile, and produced from her portfolio a series of sketches, painted in colours more prismatic than Rossiter’s. They talked of the genial climate, and beautiful scenery of Kansas, and foretold that it would be the Italy of the western world.
“I hope it will be like Italy only in its externals,” said Kate. “I trust there will be no lazaroni, no monks, no banditti, no despots to imprison men for talking about the laws that govern them.”
“Why do youwantto make a new Italy of it?” inquired Alice. “What better destiny can you wish for it, than to be like our dear New England?”
“Nothing bettercanbe wished for it,” rejoined William. “Had I not been deeply impressed with the conviction that the institutions, and manners, and consequent welfare of states, depend greatly on the character of first settlers, I should never have encouraged emigration from the old Commonwealth by my own example.”
“But the climate and scenery of Italy would be an improvement to Massachusetts,” said John, “if we could have it without losing the active soul and strong muscle of New England.”
“That is it exactly, John,” rejoined Katie. “We will have it a young New England; but it shall be under sunny skies, with Italian dress.”
Several days passed before the emigrants began to be much aware of the discomforts and fatigue of a long journey. The babies crowed, and seemed to think the huge machine was invented expressly to furnish them with a pleasanter motion than cradle or go-cart; while maturer minds found amusement in observing the passengers that came and went, and pleasure in the varying scenery, as they were whirled along, past the thriving farms of New York, the tall forests of Canada, and the flower-dappled prairies of Illinois. But after a while, even the strongest became aware of aching bones, and the most active minds grew drowsy. The excessive weariness of the last days no pen can adequately describe. The continuous motion of the cars, without change of posture; the disturbed night on board steamboats full of crying children; the slow floating over Missouri waters, now wheeling round to avoid a snag, now motionless for hours on a sand-bar, waiting for the drifting tide, while twilight settles darkly down over uninhabited forests, stretching away in the dim distance. The hurry and scramble of arriving at strange places, farther and farther away from home, and always with a dreary feeling at their hearts that no home awaited them.
“If I could only make it seem as if we weregoing anywhere, I don’t think I should feel so tired,” said Alice, with a kind of weary bewilderment in the expression of her sweet countenance.
Worn out as Katie was, she summoned a cheerful smile, and replied, “Keep up a brave heart, Alice, dear. Those who are going nowhere are pretty sure to arrive.”
After eight days’ travel, they arrived at Kansas City, in Missouri. There they bade adieu to cars and steamboats, and entered the Indian Territory, closely stowed away in great wagons, covered with sail-cloth, and furnished with rough boards for seats. In some places the road swept along in graceful curves, through miles of smooth open prairie, belted with noble trees, and sprinkled with wild flowers, as copiously as rain-drops from a summer shower. The charming novelty of the scene was greeted with a child-like outburst of delight from all the weary party. Even the quiet, home-loving Alice, clapped her hands, and exclaimed, “How beautiful!” without adding with a sigh, “But it isn’t like dear New England.”
William smiled affectionately at her enthusiastic surprise, and said, “Virtuous and industrious people can build up happy homes in such solitudes as these, dear Alice.”
Anon, they descended into deep ravines, which jolted the rough boards, and knocked their heads together. Through these steep passes the wagonswere jerked by patient mules, till they were brought into streams whose uncertain depths made the women and children scream; or into creeks sparkling in the sunshine, whose shallow waters covered holes, easier to pass by leaving the wagons, and jumping from stone to stone. Then scrambling up another steep bank, they found marks of wheels to indicate a road. They packed themselves into the huge wagons again, with their baskets and babies, bread and cheese, and went tumbling along with bonnets knocked into cocked-hats, and hats that had lost all appearance of being wide-awake. Katie was conjecturing, now and then, how many bowls and plates would arrive in Kansas unbroken; while Alice had a foggy idea that they were going nowhere; but there was a rainbow across the fog, because William was going there, too.
Tired out in mind and body, they came at last to the river Wakarusa, which they crossed slowly at the fording-place, and rode up a bank that seemed steep enough to set the wagons on end. This brought them into fields of grass, dotted here and there with small cabins. To New England eyes it presented little resemblance to a village; but it was called a town, and bore the honoured name of Franklin. A few miles to the left, smoothly rounded hills rose on the horizon, terrace-like, one behind the other. Between those beautiful hills and the thickly-wooded banks of theriver, was the infant town of Lawrence, the destined capital of Free Kansas.
Here the travellers rested to greet old friends, who had preceded them, and to form plans for the future. They all agreed that a more beautiful nestling place for a village had rarely been seen; and really, considering it was little more than eight months old, it had quite a grown-up look. There were several neat houses, and many cabins, the appearance of which indicated industrious inmates, who would rapidly increase their comforts, and enlarge their borders. The bright river made a graceful curve, fringed with trees, which the skill of man could not have arranged so tastefully as nature had done. Hills rose to the horizon in gradually ascending series, their verdant slopes lighted up with golden sunshine. One of grander proportions than the others, called Blue Mound, was immediately singled out by Mr. Bradford as the site of a future Free State University; and his equally active-minded wife forthwith matured the plan, by proposing that William Bruce should be its first president, and her baby become a professor of some ’ology or other.
“I am afraid we can’t wait long enough forhim,” replied her husband, smiling. “We shall have to chooseyoufor a professor, Kate; I, for one, will give you my vote.”
The rough hands of the settlers, and their coarse garments, soiled with prairie mud, were offensiveto Kate’s ideas of neatness, and still more so to the delicate tastes of Alice. But on Sundays, when they were dressed, in their best, and met together to read and sing, they looked like quite different people. As they became more acquainted, it was an agreeable surprise to find so large a proportion of them intelligent and well educated. With a pervading character of sobriety, industry and enterprise, they seemed to require nothing but time, and a small allowance of that, to build up thriving towns and form a prosperous state. Certainly, the manner of living was rude, for many of them ate their dinner from boards laid across the tops of barrels. The labour also was hard, for there was much to do, and few to do it; and, as yet, wells were not dug, or machinery introduced. But where all worked, no one felt his dignity lessened by toil. They had the most essential element of a prosperous state; the respectability of labour. The next most important element they also had; for they placed a high value on education, and were willing to sacrifice much to secure it for their children. The absence of conventional forms, and the constant exercise of ingenuity, demanded by the inconveniences and emergencies of a settler’s life, have a wonderful effect in producing buoyancy and energy of character. The tendency to hope for every thing, and the will to do every thing desirable to be done, were so contagious, that Alice wassurprised to discover the amount of her hitherto undeveloped capabilities.
There was a cabin for sale, built by one of the earliest settlers, who 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.Shelisten to thevows 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 couldgrow; 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 ofdishes, 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, andevery 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 fromtheir 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 doit.” 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 littletoothick. 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 ravinesSit listening to the talking streams below.”
“The Oreads, that frequent the lifted mountains;* * * * * * * and o’er deep ravinesSit listening to the talking streams below.”
“The Oreads, that frequent the lifted mountains;* * * * * * * and o’er deep ravinesSit listening to the talking streams below.”
Then Governor Robinson’s house, on the brow ofthe 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 sendherout!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 ofcourse 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, ifI 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. Fromsuchofficers 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 paidmen 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 asslaves. 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 calledthemselveslovers 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 republicancouldbe 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, whyneedthey persecute us so? There are thousands of acres of land uncultivated in Missouri. What makes them covetourland?”
“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 donotwant that any more Free States should come into the Union, to balance theirinfluence. 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.
Various boxes from Massachusetts, directed to William Bruce, had arrived in Kansas City. Some of them contained comfortables and blankets for the winter, which Mrs. May had prepared for her darling daughter; her “stray lamb in the wilderness,” as she was wont to call her. Could all that mother’s thoughts and feelings have been daguerreotyped on the cloth, while those stitches were taken, it would have been an epic poem of wondrous pathos. What visions of Alice sleeping in her cradle; of her wakening smile; of her soft curls waving in the summer breeze, as she came running with a flower; of her girlish bloom, delicate as the sweet-pea blossom; of her clear melodious voice in the choir at church; of the bashful blushing ways, that betrayed her dawning love for William; of the struggle in her soul, when she must choose between him and her parents; of her parting look, when she turned from the home of her childhood, to follow her husband into the wilderness. In Alice’s soul those stitches, by the old, fond, faithful hand, would also waken a poem of reminiscences. How she longed for those boxes, to see what mother had sent her! Above all, for the letters from dear New England; especially the long letter from mother!
It was agreed that William’s brothers should go with a wagon to bring them. They reached Kansas city in safety, and the boxes were delivered to them. Passing through Franklin, on their return, they found fifty or sixty Missouri ruffians carousing round a rum-shop, built of logs. A man with ragged trowsers and dirty checked shirt, too tipsy to stand alone, was leaning against a corner of the shop, scraping a fiddle, while his comrades sung: