The Cabin on the Prairie Part 12

"My wife, hoping that you might be cheered by the arrival of your family, has been fixing up your room a bit, and I suppose she won't rest to-night unless she sees how you like the improvements."

And Mrs. Lincoln opening the door into his apartment, the missionary saw before him his three children, sleeping peacefully in their nice beds, and his wife seated in a rocking-chair, exercising a world of self-control, in order to carry out the plot of surprising him.

CHAPTER X.

"NO WHISKEY AT THIS RAISING!"

If the Scottish bard found it a hard experience that

'The best laid schemes of mice and men Gang oft agla'

in staid old Scotland, how would he have sung if his lot had been cast amid the vicissitudes of frontier life on an American prairie?

We speak of the uncertainties of all earthly expectations where society organized, helps man in a thousand ways to achieve his plans; but there is nothing settled in a new country: everything is in embryo, and therefore disappointments are indefinitely multiplied.

When the immigrant arrives at his destination, he soon finds that his most reasonable projects prove to be the veriest air-castles, and that his reliance must be on Providence and his own strong arm. This state of things is specially trying to the man of small means and unaccustomed to physical toil, as was the case with Mr. Payson. The settlers, especially those of religious character, had made, in true western style, many and generous promises to induce him to live among them. They designed to keep their engagements with him; but a thousand contingencies were continually arising, which they could not foresee, to render the fulfilment of their agreements impossible. But perhaps no failure in this direction had tried the missionary so much as that connected with the erection of a dwelling-house. Mr. Palmer had voluntarily made him the offer of money for that purpose, and if any man could be depended upon, it was he; but he had invested his funds in the new town. He was a prudent man, and when the proposal was made him by the two proprietors to join them in the enterprise, he was disinclined to do so. They were irreligious men, stirring, energetic workers, but devoid of interest in "things unseen," and therefore could not be expected to care for the present and future moral condition of the settlement. Yet we should do them the justice to say that they were not indifferent to the religious welfare of their village, only that, not being religious men, they would not take the matter in charge themselves; they needed a leader, both to plan and to set a wholesome example, and this was one reason for their asking Mr.

Palmer to become a partner. This reason was a weighty one with him; but before deciding the question, he consulted with Mr. Payson.

Laying the whole matter before him, he asked,--

"What do you think of my engaging in this thing?"

"I do hope," he answered, "that, if you can make it pecuniarily successful, you will become a town owner. I should feel that I had a pillar to lean upon in all my endeavors for the social and religious good of this people, and it seems to me that there can be no risk in it; we have everything here to make a town,--water-power, timber, limestone quarries for building material, abundance of clean prairie land for agricultural purposes, and sooner or later a railroad must pa.s.s very near here, as it is on the great travelled route to the important points west and north. Emigration is coming in well; we have a religious meeting established, and I hope soon we shall have a school."

"That is the way it seems to me," said Mr. Palmer; "and it appears also, that I might do a great deal of good by using aright the power a town owner might have."

So he decided to make the investment. But mishap after mishap occurred to thwart the enterprises of the town owners; and while their expenses were large, the returns were so small that Mr. Palmer came to the preacher one day, and with emotion said,--

"Mr. Payson, I fear I shall have to disappoint you about the money I promised to let you have for the building of your cottage."

This was a heavy blow to the missionary, and his friend knew too well that it would be, for Mr. Payson had set his heart on having a comfortable home provided for his family when they should arrive. Many a pleasant bit of correspondence had pa.s.sed between himself and wife on the subject of the pretty white cottage, on the eighty-acre lot adjoining the town, and the joy of meeting her was overshadowed by the thought that she had come to a homeless wilderness, while expecting something so different; and when she asked repeatedly if the cottage was ready, and when he was going to take her to see it, in his unhappiness he avoided a direct reply, which, with the ominous silence of the good friends by whom they were entertained, led her to conjecture how matters stood; and one day she lifted the weight in a measure from his heart by saying,--

"It would be very strange, while almost everybody in a new country are obliged to live in log cabins, if we should be enough better off to put up a framed house. I don't believe you have been able to yet; it is too much to expect. But never mind; if others can live within log walls for the sake of making money, we certainly can for a higher motive."

"Just like yourself," said he, gratefully, relating the facts as we have recited them.

"But what are we going to do?" she inquired; "we ought not to think of accepting the hospitality of this generous-hearted family much longer.

Their house is already so crowded, it puts them to great inconvenience."

"I am aware of it," said her husband. "Mr. Palmer has a little cabin which he has offered me for temporary use until I can put up something on my claim; but it is so rough and lonely, that on your account I have not felt like saying anything to you about it."

"O," said she, merrily, "do take me there to-day; it would be so romantic to live in a log cabin."

So, their host's team being chartered, they went to look at the "rent." It was a funny wee loggery, hastily put up for pre-emption purpose, standing in a small, enclosed field near the river, two miles from town, the nearest neighbor being Mr. Jones, who lived a mile and a half farther down the stream.

Mr. Palmer, in antic.i.p.ation of the visit, had been there before them, and put in a whole gla.s.s window, laid the rough boards, that const.i.tuted the floor, more closely, and put up some shelves for a cupboard in a corner.

"This is elegance itself!" exclaimed the little woman, laughing heartily: "get a few chairs, and a stove, husband, and we'll move right in; and see," she added, looking out of the door; "there are potatoes here that have not been dug--quite a crop: perhaps you can buy the right to use them."

"O, yes," replied her husband; "brother Palmer says we can have the use of the cabin free, and all there is about it."

"The fish in the river, too, I suppose," said she, stepping to the fence, and peering over the river brink.

"I reckon you won't get fish enough to get sick on them," said a voice near; and, Mr. Jones emerged from a clump of bushes, his gun on his shoulder.

"This is our neighbor," said the minister; "my wife, Mr. Jones."

"Looking up a cage to put your bird in?" asked the squatter.

The minister replied affirmatively.

"You found that eighty-acre lot just as I told ye--didn't ye?" he asked.

"Precisely."

"And did your 'brother Smith' give it up like a Christian?" he pursued.

"I suppose I am the proprietor of it now," said the minister, good-naturedly.

"And he didn't charge you anything for giving up what was not his--did he?"

"No," said the missionary; "he did not charge me anything for the claim, although he seemed to think it right that I should give him something for the improvements."

"Improvements! Yes, I suppose he expects some pay for the saw logs he stole from the lot, while he had acres on acres of timber of his own.

It's no more'n fair that a Christian man should be paid for the lumber he plunders from other folks' land. You paid him for that, of course?"

"O, no," replied Mr. Payson; "he didn't bring in his bill for that. He had cleared and fenced the ten-acre piece over the river, and he said he didn't wish to lose his labor."

"Well," said Mr. Jones, almost fiercely, "I wasn't aware, elder, that you employed him to do that little job; I thought that was done last year, 'fore we knew anything 'bout you in these parts."

"Yes, yes," said the missionary, coloring.

"And I rather think," he continued, "that he got his pay for his work, as he expected to, in what he took from the land. I never saw better corn and wheat, let alone the potatoes and the pumpkins that he raised on that river bottom; and as to the rails, they belong where he took them from, that eighty-acre lot that he robbed and impoverished, tilling the soil in the summer, and cutting down the best trees in the winter, and working what he didn't care about into rails; and now he turns around,--after having skimmed your milk, when he had plenty of his own,--and tells you, as a Christian brother, that you orter pay him for taking off the cream, and making b.u.t.ter of it for his own table. May I ask what he charged you for the operation?"

"He asked," said the minister, "eighty dollars, but concluded to take thirty."

"And when you form your church you'll choose him first deacon--won't you?" said the squatter, sneeringly.

"Neighbor Jones," said the minister, quietly, "I find that Mr. Smith's character is pretty well understood among the settlers. From all I can learn, I judge that he has never been a member of a church, but is one of a too large cla.s.s, who try to palm themselves off on religious people, that they may the better carry out their own wicked and selfish ends. I did not pay him the thirty dollars because he had a right to ask it of me, but because I had rather sacrifice something than to expose the spiritual welfare of this people by giving an occasion for a quarrel, however unjustly; and, mark me, the time will come when that money, small as the amount is, will be a burden to the conscience of that man. But," he added, suddenly changing the subject, "we expect to have a raising on my lot day after to-morrow.

Cannot I rely on you for a lift?"

"Ah," said he, "what are you going to put up there--a framed house?"

"O, no," replied the minister, smiling, "only a few logs. The town owners are going to let me take down the log house they have used on the other side of the river,--as the logs are so well seasoned,--and put them up on my place; and, wife,"--turning to her,--"we shall have to depend on you for refreshments for the occasion."

"You have given me short notice," she replied, "but I can have things ready if you can manage to get supplies, and a stove up in season."