Two years had passed away. I am afraid we were a little disenchanted at first. But here were all the old friends—very few of them had dropped out of life. 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. It seemed queer after the finished aspect of the Old World.
The Sontieffs had done very well indeed. Both wives had come, a somewhat severe-looking middle-aged mother, who was sweet and tender at heart, a rather pretty, light-haired young wife of some German stock a generation or two back, and two very foreign-looking children, such as we had seen in groups in the old cities.
The men had been informing themselves in American ways and methods. They would go farther back and buy government land. Already quite a colony had been formed and two men had been sent out prospecting. 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.
Homer suggested father very strongly to me. He was building, buying and selling, preferring the nimble sixpence to the slow shilling. They had a new little girl, and they called her Bessy. Sophie was stout and energetic, a lovely mother. Nanette had a little family also, and it seemed as if the population had increased rapidly.
Ben had one year more in the law school. He was coming back to Chicago.
"I want a place to draw a good long breath," he said. "Out here there is room for new States and cities, and a man can forge up to the head sooner. It makes me laugh to hear those Eastern people talk. They think they have it all. Some day they will wake up mightily surprised."
Chris was doing well and growing really handsome in a more spiritual fashion than any of the other of us boys. He was mother's darling, after all.
It was about autumn before we were truly settled. Mother was to remain with us. The house was enlarged a little and renovated, and partly new furnished. Mother had her furniture in her two rooms, she fancied she might like to keep house by herself, but she never did.