Amanda M. Douglas

“ I sometimes come out here alone, in fact, though I've ridden children on Chita, I've never taken one of the older girls out in this boundless solitude. Chita and I keep our secrets together. What do you suppose is beyond? Oh, must every one die in the end and go to that strange country? Wouldn't you hate to die, Little Girl? I want a long life of pleasure and love, and business activities and money making, and I wish I could never grow old. Why can't one slough off the old body when it gets feeble, and have a new vigorous one right here, with this glorious life. ”

“ That summer Chicago was all astir. It didn't matter to anybody whether Martin Van Buren was President or not. There were processions of grain coming in, ox loads, precursors of trains that no one dreamed of then, bringing it in sheets and blankets, begged of the housewives when bags were filled, and there was the crude elevator, the grain hoisted by hand with block and tackle, and dumped into the hold of the big Osceola. ”

“ Surely, Ruth, you will tell me the truth, the whole truth. I've always been fond of you, and it seems as if Norme left you to us when he went away. You were only a little girl, and he has companied so much with high and mighty folks that I suppose he will be miles and miles above anybody here. But mother's heart is set upon you, and she's nagged me lately, as if she thought I wasn't—well, forward enough. We're all fond of you, you know. If you could—only I'm afraid—" hesitatingly, "that you don't love me. A girl always shows it a little. ”

“ One party drew roseate pictures of the possibilities of the coming Chicago. We were to be the centre of trade—we were between the east and the west, not only that, but there was Canada and the lakes and the mineral wealth of upper Michigan, the boundless prairies.
And the others sneered at the mud hole and saw dozens of ways in which trade could be diverted. The canal wouldn't ever be finished, the towns along the Mississippi had the start of us and would keep it. Cities would spring up along its banks as if by magic. ”

“ I made answer. "But there are all the Haynes, and Sophie, and several of the girls that I make believe are cousins."
He laughed. "And we must never separate, I think. I couldn't live without you."
"Oh, father, no! no!" I cried, with passionate emphasis.
"But suppose in a year or two some man wants to marry you, or rather that you fall in love. And—after all, love is the best thing in a woman's life. You see, the old people do not live forever."
"Oh, father, you must not, shall not die! If you did I should drown myself in the lake," and I put my wet cheek down to his. ”

“ Great far reaches of prairie like a sea, the stubble holding a gem on every little twig. From somewhere came a waft of wild grape, but it was so dry there was very little dew. The crunch of Chita's hoofs made a regular beat of music, but around all was a hush of emptiness, a kind of mystery that allured yet filled one with terror at its very solemnity, an atmosphere of strange enchantment, as if one could ride on to another world. ”

“ So it was Ruth Elizabeth, but Homer always called her Little Girl. What would Chicago be when she was sixteen? Men would be describing old Chicago as they did now. But the log houses would be gone, and the plain brick houses were not picturesque. Would there be any old Fort Dearborn? And some of the Indians had thought it wiser to move further back. The wheat and oats and corn were trenching upon the ground to which they really had no claim. They still had their ball games and their races, the ambition of every young brave was to own a horse. Work for anything else they would not. ”

“ The Chicago River was being widened. Sidewalks were laid as the streets were filled up. Old Chicago was passing away, just as the Little Girl had vanished, though father often used the name. Dan had given me all sorts of pet names at first, then he settled down to Ruth.
And so a year passed, two years. Dan was much interested in city affairs, father was making money in the old ways. We had settled down, and I supposed I had all the happiness that comes to married life. No, not all. There was no child to gladden our hearts and draw us together. Homer had another little boy. ”

“ Brave Jesse Walker, the pioneer Methodist preacher, was among the first to welcome mother. And there was Mr. Porter, whose wife had been our earliest school teacher, two or three of the ex-mayors, Mr. Hubbard and the Doles of my boyhood and many another.
The town had not stood still. But the most wonderful thing to me was the invincible push and perseverance and industry, the resolve to establish a great city on those foundation stones, not ancestry, not mere intellectuality. All roads should lead to it as they had to old Rome. Some were started, others planned and there were great dreams. ”

“ So I was mightily surprised when I came home one morning from some trading to see a young fellow sitting on the porch with father, and hear him say:
"Ruth, this is John Gaynor."
A nice, wholesome youth, between boy and man, with a fair, clean skin, rather light blue eyes, but with quite deep eyelashes and brows, and light brown hair, not with a decided golden tint, but giving the effect of having gold dust sprinkled over it. Not especially handsome, yet not plain, bright and intelligent. ”

“ Dan said not to ask any one else. We had made some vines grow over our porch, and I had a row of flowers on each side of the walk, like my mother's dooryard. Polly admired it cordially and told us of the southern flowers and vines that grew so riotously in their sweetness and bloom. She sat and talked to father until they were summoned to tea, and we had a rather merry meal. She thought our prospect so fine, the great sweep of prairie on one side, the lake on the other. They laughed about old Chicago, though Polly said it had not made rapid strides only in a business way. ”

“ Like a romance Chicago rose from her ruins and ashes to be grander than any one had dreamed, and her men again worked their way up to prosperity with indomitable energy. Homer lost less than I, but it was enough to make us poor men. John Gaynor started in afresh with his paper with cheery Yankee spirit. Ben's stock was largely ambitions, and he lived to realize upon them. ”

“ When Chicago reared the magnificent White City, the like of which no one had yet attempted, we were in the older generation with our grandchildren about us. They never tire of hearing how grandmamma travelled from Massachusetts in a big country wagon, with all the household goods they could carry, crossing New York and Ohio, stopping by the way to catch fish or shoot game and cooking by the wayside in a stone fireplace, sleeping in the wagon, sometimes roused by wild animals, occasionally meeting Indians, and at last reaching Chicago and grandpapa. ”

“ Dan set down Letty Dole, who was profuse in her expressions of delight. I don't know whether I looked wistful. I wanted to hug Chita and she turned and put her nose in my hand. What mystery was there in her eyes?
"We must all go home," began Polly, peremptorily, turning the girls in a kind of squad.
"Here's one who has not ridden Chita, nor any other creature, I think—this little Gaynor girl."
"It's too late, Dan. And then she's such a timid little thing. No, let her alone." ”

“ I didn't want to hear about myself, though I knew then there was a great gulf between Homer and me that only love could bridge over. Yet I did love him dearly at that moment.
"And Sophie?" I interposed.
"It's queer, isn't it? And they say girls are always jealous of each other. Ruth, you are the sweetest little thing in the world. If Sophie didn't love you, I don't know as I could ask her. And I shall tell her just how it was. Of course, mother—she must know, too, that I asked you. I like everything open and above board. ”

“ I was a poor man and must begin the struggle with business again, if one could find anything to do in such devastation. Homer had fared better. Mother and Ruth and the children accepted their hospitality for the winter.
John Gaynor was near seventy, but brisk and hearty and helpful, hopeful, too, I ought to say. He would have enough to start the four children in life. Why should I worry about them?
How Chicago arose from its ashes, stronger, more magnificent, more durable, and still kept stretching out its thews and sinews in every direction is a matter long since gone into history. ”

“ Quiet, apparently contented Ben!
"Yes, I'm going to set out for that. If you don't put up a mark you can't help shooting at random. Of course it will take a long while and hard study, but one reason why I like you so much is that you're fond of books, and have more real sense than most girls. And, Ruth, you could be a perfect lady. It's born in some people, and when it isn't they never get quite up to the mark." ”

“ A little girl of seven or eight in a faded blue cotton 5 frock that came two or three inches from her ankles, and her dainty feet were encased in a pair of beaded moccasins. Her light hair, more flaxen than golden, hung about in short loose curls. Her skin was very fair, her mouth like an opening rosebud. But her eyes transfixed one even in the growing darkness. They seemed bathed in dewy sunshine and were of the depth of sapphire, or the blue of a winter night. ”

“ We were beginning to have parlors, though the old-fashioned keeping room, where you sit and work and talk to your friends, the spinning wheel in one corner, the dresser with its drawers holding table linen, the shelves above for the best dishes, the commodious settle and the Boston rocker, hold a charm that modern rooms cannot give, for they had the heart of family life. ”

“ The trolleys go everywhere and at times we ramble in them or out of them. Here is old Fort Dearborn with the tablet to mark its memory. Did we loiter about it and sit on the steps and recapitulate the massacre? And here was the old Kinzie house, where the San Domingo trader had his cabin, and here the first school I went to, here the old Towner log cabin where the Little Girl lived, and I used to come in and help her get supper, and we read that dear, delightful, stirring "Lady of the Lake." Here we went to Sunday School and walked home together. ”

“ Hayne said, when we had left the house, "that's done with, and I've been dreading it. Sophie will make a nice wife, I dare say, but I think Homer could have found some good American girl. There's Kate and Annie Noble. They always ask him to their gatherings, and Mr. Noble said to father that he was a smart, level-headed fellow, and would make his mark. I've been counting on my boys marrying, and I've wanted some one I could company with and feel to like as an own daughter." ”

“ A woman like that gives royally when she is compelled. You have to extort it out of her, but the drop of honey is worth it all. The old man who took her in hand never found the way to the heart of the flower. That was saved for me. And it is a delicious draught. We are going away together—we shall never come back. What people say is of no importance to us."
"It is Polly Morrison," I gasped. "Oh, Dan, if you loved her, then why did you marry me?" ”

“ I give thanks, like good old David, seven times a day that she's out of Dan's way."
I missed Sophie and the excitement, though some new girl friends came in, and Ben was my devoted cavalier. But one night he surprised me by a very naïve confession. Were the Haynes, little and big, bound to own me?
He had been descanting on Homer's happiness, which was ideal, of course.
"The right thing for a man to do is to get married when he reaches a certain place," began Ben gravely. "And I've some plans—I'm going in Hamilton's real estate and law office. They want a clerk. ”

“ I have seen him throw himself on the grass with a grace that would have moved a sculptor to envy, and the manner in which he tossed his head back and laughed tempted me to save up the funny little household incidents and jests, and the quips I saw in the paper, just for the sake of the merry ring. There was the boyish surrender 211 to fun, the delight in life that was really infectious. As a little girl I had felt afraid of him, there were moods now that made me tremble, there were glances of his eyes so deep, so eager that I felt a helpless captive with a wild, unavailing desire for flight. ”

“ It was to be not far from the great canal, but now railroads were being planned. California had given an impetus to us. The Pacific was to be our western boundary. We would not even stop at the Rocky Mountains, and have not those brilliant dreams been fulfilled? Has Chicago proved herself a mere braggart?
Young John Gaynor was a man grown, and as we found soon afterward, had a sweetheart, a fine sturdy, honest-looking young fellow with the breezy voice one insensibly acquires when the spaces are wide. ”

“ Pigs were not to wander in the streets, men were not to shoot off firearms in the limits, but they did. A stovepipe was not to run through a board partition, as if the city fathers had a premonition that fire would some day work a havoc. There was to be no horse racing in the streets, cards and dice were not to be played in taverns after ten o'clock. 70
I was much interested to know how Mr. Gaynor would take it. He was by no means a red-hot politician, and though he had decided views he seldom allowed himself to wrangle, but turned off an argument with a joke or some humorous comparison. ”

“ WITHOUT NORMAN
It seemed suddenly as if Chicago took a great leap. Perhaps the whole country was more prosperous. But everybody was full of business, and immigrants were pouring in at the rate of ten a day, the newspaper announced. They were of all kinds. Some from Virginia, many from the two States south of us, hardy people with an uncouth dialect and new ways that were more or less picturesque. The men had been great hunters and could hardly adapt themselves to any employment at first. The women were used to all kinds of household work. ”

“ And now he really could not do without Norman. They were like father and son. He was an excellent French scholar, and had also taken up Latin. He read to Mr. Le Moyne, wrote his letters, accompanied him everywhere. "I watch all that goes on as well as read the papers daily, and am really eyes to him. He is sensitive on the point and scarcely acknowledges his misfortune, but you can see how very dependent he must be on some one. And he has trained me to his habits and methods. He has the loveliest and most sincere nature, his friendship is the greatest boon a young fellow can have. ”

“ Oh, why can't people talk through space? I sometimes send messages on the wind—do you get them, dear? Send me back some. And—can you believe at Christmas or thereabout I shall see you? I measure six feet now, and sometimes I think I begin to look like Dan, only I shall never be as handsome. Tell me all about his girls. It's high time he was married."
It was written very closely, and oh, what a delight it was! I sat there all of a tremble hugging it to my heart. Joe was hammering on the steps with the new potato masher that Homer had made, and I never heard him. ”

“ Gaynor's affairs as well as I could, and there were some matters 308 of Dan's left unsettled. He must have taken a considerable amount of money with him, but whether it was in the bottom of the lake or buried with him no one was ever to know.
After a month or so Ruth began to evince a slow improvement. "If she had enough strength to pull through," the doctor said with a faint inflection in his voice that sounded like hope to the waiting, longing ear. She could not have had a tenderer nurse than mother, and womanly care and sympathy exceeds that of the most loving man. ”