The Pioneer Boys of the Mississippi; or, The Homestead in the Wilderness

by St. George Rathborne

It was a two-story affair, the upper projecting a foot or more beyond the lower, as was the ease with most blockhouses built in those dark days, when enemies were apt to spring up in a night, surrounding the fort, and striving by every device known to savage ingenuity to encompass its destruction.

There were small openings in the floor of this second story where it overlapped the lower walls, and through these the defenders might protect the log foundations from being set on fire by the red fiends who had besieged the occupants, and were bent on their destruction.

After all, it could be made fairly comfortable, and, as there is more or less consolation in having companions in misery, the women were beginning to pluck up a little heart, looking to the coming of better times.

Those whose homes had been carried away were promised the assistance of every strong arm in the community, in the effort to provide them with new cabins, for, being so utterly aloof from contact with civilization, the pioneers were dependent on one another for everything that went to make up life.

Of course the boys could not long keep away from the bank, where they might look out toward the upper part of their submerged cabin and speculate on its ability to hold out to the end.

As the day wore on their hopes kept rising and falling. Sandy, in particular, changed his mind about every ten minutes. Now he was certain that the good old cabin was bound to defy the power of the flood to move it from its foundations; then again he would call out that he feared it must be about to give up the fight, because he had seen its walls shake in a way that told they were near collapse.

But noon came and went, and found things just about the same as when dawn broke over the cheerless scene. True, another cabin had succumbed to the rush of swirling water, so that six in all had been destroyed; but that circumstance alone need not fill them with dismay, since new abodes could be erected, before many weeks had passed, that would in all probability be an improvement on the old.

Around the fires the men gathered in clusters to talk over the situation, and exchange opinions. And every time Bob chanced to draw near one of these groups he discovered, to his surprise, that much of the talk was about the chances of a venturesome party reaching the fertile prairie land away off to the west, by following the course of the Ohio.

Apparently, then, Sandy had spoken truly when he declared that the seed had taken root in the hearts of several of the heads of families; and Bob found that even his own father seemed to be as deeply interested in the project as any of the others.

The very idea gave Bob a thrill. To the bold pioneer, be he boy or man, there is always something very fascinating about heading into the unknown land. Somewhere ahead there always exists a wonderful country where marvellous things may be done. Just as the lure of gold led men to cross the wide plains to California so this feverish desire to possess the land appealed to our forefathers, and tempted them to brave the perils that lay in wait along unknown trails, all leading westward.