The Boy Settlers: A Story of Early Times in Kansas

by Noah Brooks

At Younkins’s cabin they met Hiram Battles, a neighbor who lived beyond the divide to the eastward, and who had just ridden over in search of some of his cattle that had strayed away, during the night before. Mr. Battles said he was “powerful worrited.” Indians had been seen prowling around on his side of the divide: but he had seen 136 no signs of a camp, and he had traced the tracks of his cattle, three head in all, over this way as far as Lone Tree Creek, a small stream just this side of the divide; but there he had unaccountably lost all trace of them.

“Well, as for the Indians,” said Charlie, modestly, “we have seen them passing out on the trail. But they were going hunting, and they kept right on to the southward and westward; and we have not seen them go back since.”

“The lad’s right,” said Younkins, slowly, “but still I don’t like the stories I hear down the road a piece. They do say that the Shians have riz.”

“The Cheyennes have risen!” exclaimed Charlie. “And we have let Sandy go down to the post alone!”

Both of the men laughed––a little unpleasantly, it seemed to the boys, although Younkins was the soul of amiability and mildness. But Charlie thought it was unkind in them to laugh at his very natural apprehensions; and he said as much, as he and Oscar, with their clothes on their heads, waded the Republican Fork on the way home.

“Well, Charlie,” was Oscar’s comforting remark, as they scrambled up the opposite bank, “I guess the reason why they laughed at us was that if the Cheyennes have gone on the warpath, the danger is out in the west; whereas, Sandy has gone eastward to-day, and that is right in the way of safety, isn’t it? He’s gone to the post; and you know 137 that the people down at Soldier Creek told us that this was a good place to settle, because the post would be our protection in case of an Indian rising.”

Meanwhile, Sandy was blissfully and peacefully jogging along in the direction of the military post. Only one house stood between Younkins’s and the fort; and that was Mullett’s. They all had occasion to think pleasantly of Mullett’s; for whenever an opportunity came for the mail to be forwarded from the fort up to Mullett’s, it was sent there; then Sparkins, who was the next neighbor above, but who lived off the road a bit, would go down to Mullett’s and bring the mail up to his cabin; when he did this, he left a red flannel flag flying on the roof of his house, and Younkins, if passing along the trail, saw the signal and went out of his way a little to take the mail up to his cabin. Somehow, word was sent across the river to the Whittier boys, as the good Younkins soon learned to call the Boy Settlers, and they went gladly over to Younkins’s and got the precious letters and papers from home. That was the primitive way in which the mail for the settlers on the Republican Fork went up the road from Fort Riley, in those days; and all letters and papers designed for the settlers along there were addressed simply to Fort Riley, which was their nearest post-office.

So Sandy, when he reached Mullett’s, was not 138 disappointed to be told that there were no letters for anybody up the river. There had been nobody down to the post very lately. Sandy knew that, and he was confident that he would have the pleasure of bringing up a good-sized budget when he returned. So he whipped up his somewhat lazy steed and cantered down toward the fort.

Soon after leaving Mullett’s he met a drove of sheep. The drivers were two men and a boy of his own age, mounted on horseback and carrying their provisions, apparently, strapped behind them. When he asked them where they were going, they surlily replied that they were going to California. That would take them right up the road that he had come down, Sandy thought to himself. And he wondered if the boys at home would see the interesting sight of five hundred sheep going up the Republican Fork, bound for California.

He reached the fort before noon; and, with a heart beating high with pleasure, he rode into the grounds and made his way to the well-remembered sutler’s store where he had bought the candy, months before. He had a few pennies of his own, and he mentally resolved to spend these for raisins. Sandy had a “sweet tooth”, but, except for sugar and molasses, he had eaten nothing sweet since they were last at Fort Riley on their way westward.