CHAPTER IX.
SETTING THE STAKES.
"We mustn't let any grass grow under our feet, boys," was Mr. AleckHowell's energetic remark, next morning, when the little party hadfinished their first breakfast in their new home.
"That means work, I s'pose," replied Oscar, turning a longing glanceto his violin hanging on the side of the cabin, with a broken stringcrying for repairs.
"Yes, and hard work, too," said his father, noting the lad's look."Luckily for us, Brother Aleck," he continued, "our boys are notafraid of work. They have been brought up to it, and although I amthinking they don't know much about the sort of work that we shallhave to put in on these beautiful prairies, I guess they will buckledown to it. Eh?" and the loving father turned his look from the grassyand rolling plain to his son's face.
Sandy answered for him. "Oh, yes, Uncle Charlie, we all like work!Afraid of work? Why, Oscar and I are so used to it that we would bewilling to lie right down by the side of it, and sleep as securely asif it were as harmless as a kitten! Afraid of work? Never you fear'the Dixon boys who fear no noise'--what's the rest of that song?"
Nobody knew, and, in the laugh that followed, Mr. Howell suggestedthat as Younkins was coming over the river to show them the stakes oftheir new claims, the boys might better set an extra plate atdinner-time. It was very good of Younkins to take so much trouble ontheir account, and the least they could do was to show him properhospitality.
"What is all this about stakes and quarter-sections, anyway, father?"asked Sandy. "I'm sure I don't know."
"He doesn't know what quarter-sections are!" shouted Charlie. "Oh, my!what an ignoramus!"
"Well, what is a quarter-section, as you are so knowing?" demandedSandy. "I don't believe you know yourself."
"It is a quarter of a section of public land," answered the lad."Every man or single woman of mature age--I think that is what thebooks say--who doesn't own several hundred acres of land elsewhere (Idon't know just how many) is entitled to enter on and take up aquarter of a section of unoccupied public land, and have it for ahomestead. That's all," and Charlie looked to his father forapproval.
"Pretty good, Charlie," said his uncle. "How many acres are there in aquarter-section of land?"
"Yes, how many acres in a quarter of a section?" shouted Sandy, whosaw that his brother hesitated. "Speak up, my little man, and don't beafraid!"
"I don't know," replied the lad, frankly.
"Good for you!" said his father. "Never be afraid of saying that youdon't know when you do _not_ know. The fear of confessing ignorance iswhat has wrecked many a young fellow's chances for finding out thingshe should know."
"Well, boys," said Mr. Bryant, addressing himself to the three lads,"all the land of the United States Government that is open tosettlement is laid off in townships six miles square. These, in turn,are laid off into sections of six hundred and forty acres each. Now,then, how much land should there be in a quarter-section?"
"One hundred and sixty acres!" shouted all three boys at once,breathlessly.
"Correct. The Government allows every man, or single woman of matureage, widow or unmarried, to go upon a plot of land, not more than onehundred and sixty acres nor less than forty acres, and to improve it,and live upon it. If he stays there, or 'maintains a continuousresidence,' as the lawyers say, for a certain length of time, theGovernment gives him a title-deed at the end of that time, and he ownsthe land."
"What?--free, gratis, and for nothing?" cried Sandy.
"Certainly," said his uncle. "The homestead law was passed by Congressto encourage the settlement of the lands belonging to the Government.You see there is an abundance of these lands,--so much, in fact, thatthey have not yet been all laid off into townships and sections andquarter-sections. If a large number of homestead claims are taken up,then other settlers will be certain to come in and buy the lands thatthe Government has to sell; and that will make settlements growthroughout that locality."
"Why should they buy when they can get land for nothing by enteringand taking possession, just as we are going to do?" interruptedOscar.
"Because, my son, many of the men cannot make oath that they have nottaken up Government land somewhere else; and then, again, many men aregoing into land speculations, and they don't care to wait five yearsto prove up a homestead claim. So they go upon the land, stake outtheir claim, and the Government sells it to them outright at the rateof a dollar and a quarter an acre."
"Cash down?" asked Charlie.
"No, they need not pay cash down unless they choose. The Governmentallows them a year to pay up in. But land speculators who make abusiness of this sort of thing generally pay up just as soon as theyare allowed to, and then, if they get a good offer to sell out, theysell and move off somewhere else, and do the same thing over again."
"People have to pay fees, don't they, Uncle Charlie?" said Sandy. "Iknow they used to talk about land-office fees, in Dixon. How much doesit cost in fees to enter a piece of Government land?"
"I think it is about twenty-five dollars--twenty-six, to be exact,"replied Mr. Bryant. "There comes Younkins," he added, looking down thetrail to the river bank below.
The boys had been washing and putting away the breakfast things whilethis conversation was going on, and Sandy, balancing in the air a bigtin pan on his fingers, asked: "How much land can we fellows enter,all told?" The two men laughed.
"Well, Alexander," said his father, ceremoniously, "We two 'fellows,'that is to say, your Uncle Charlie and myself, can enter one hundredand sixty acres apiece. Charlie will be able to enter the samequantity three years from now, when he will be twenty-one; and as foryou and Oscar, if you each add to your present years as many as willmake you twenty-one, you can tell when you will be able to enter andown the same amount of land; provided it is not all gone by that time.Good morning, Mr. Younkins." Sandy's pan came down with a crash on thepuncheon floor.
The land around that region of the Republican Fork had been surveyedinto sections of six hundred and forty acres each; but it would benecessary to secure the services of a local surveyor to find out justwhere the boundaries of each quarter-section were. The stakes were setat the corner of each section, and Younkins thought that by pacing offthe distance between two corners they could get at the point thatwould mark the middle of the section; then, by running lines acrossfrom side to side, thus: [Transcriber's note: An image of a squaresubdivided into four smaller squares appears here] they could get atthe quarter-sections nearly enough to be able to tell about wheretheir boundaries were.
"But suppose you should build a house, or plough a field, on someother man's quarter-section," suggested Charlie, "wouldn't you feelcheap when the final survey showed that you had all along beenimproving your neighbor's property?"
"There isn't any danger of that," answered Younkins, "if you are smartenough to keep well away from your boundary line when you areputting in your improvements. Some men are not smart enough,though. There was a man over on Chapman's Creek who wanted to havehis log-cabin on a pretty rise of ground-like, that was on the upperend of his claim. He knew that the line ran somewhere about there;but he took chances-like, and when the line was run, a year afterthat, lo, and behold! his house and garden-like were both cleanover into the next man's claim."
"What did he do?" asked Charlie. "Skip out of the place?"
"Sho! No, indeed! His neighbor was a white man-like, and they justtook down the cabin and carried it across the boundary line and set itup again on the man's own land. He's livin' there yet; but he lost hisgarden-like; couldn't move that, you see"; and Younkins laughed one ofhis infrequent laughs.
The land open to the settlers on the south side of the Republican Forkwas all before them. Nothing had been taken up within a distance asfar as they could see. Chapman's Creek, just referred to by Younkins,was eighteen or twenty miles away. From the point at which they stoodand toward Chapman's, the land was surveyed; but to the westward thesurveys ran only just across the creek, which, curving from the nort
hand west, made a complete circuit around the land and emptied into theFork, just below the fording-place. Inside of that circuit, the land,undulating, and lying with a southern exposure, was destitute oftrees. It was rich, fat land, but there was not a tree on it exceptwhere it crossed the creek, the banks of which were heavily wooded.Inside of that circuit somewhere, the two men must stake out theirclaim. There was nothing but rich, unshaded land, with a meanderingwoody creek flowing through the bottom of the two claims, providedthey were laid out side by side. The corner stakes were found, andthe men prepared to pace off the distance between the corners so as tofind the centre.
"It is a pity there is no timber anywhere," said Howell, discontentedly."We shall have to go several miles for timber enough to build ourcabins. We don't want to cut down right away what little there isalong the creek."
"Timber?" said Younkins, reflectively. "Timber? Well, if one of youwould put up with a quarter-section of farming land, then the othercan enter some of the timber land up on the North Branch."
Now, the North Branch was two miles and a half from the cabin in whichthe Dixon party were camped; and that cabin was two miles from thebeautiful slopes on which the intending settlers were now looking foran opportunity to lay out their two claims. The two men looked at eachother. Could they divide and settle this far apart for the sake ofgetting a timber lot?
It was Sandy who solved the problem. "I'll tell you what to do,father!" he cried, eagerly: "you take up the timber claim on the NorthBranch, and we boys can live there; then you and Uncle Charlie cankeep one of the claims here. We can build two cabins, and you oldfolks can live in one, and we in another."
The fathers exchanged glances, and Mr. Howell said, "I don't see how Icould live without Sandy and Charlie."
YOUNKINS ARGUED THAT SETTLERS WERE ENTITLED TO ALL THEYCOULD GET AND HOLD.]
Younkins brightened up at Sandy's suggestion; and he added that thetwo men might take up two farming claims, side by side, and let theboys try and hold the timber claim on the North Branch. Thus far,there was no rush of emigration to the south side of the RepublicanFork. Most of the settlers went further to the south; or they haltedfurther east, and fixed their stakes along the line of the Big Blueand other more accessible regions.
"We'll chance it, won't we, Aleck?" said Mr. Bryant.
Mr. Howell looked vaguely off over the rolling slope on which theywere standing, and said: "We will chance it with the boys on thetimber land, but I am not in favor of taking up two claims here. Letthe timber claim be in my name or yours, and the boys can live on it.But we can't take up two claims here and the timber besides--three inall--with only two full-grown men among the whole of us. That standsto reason."
Younkins was a little puzzled by the strictness with which the twonewcomers were disposed to regard their rights and duties as actualsettlers. He argued that settlers were entitled to all they could getand hold; and he was in favor of the party's trying to hold threeclaims of one hundred and sixty acres each, even if there were onlytwo men legally entitled to enter homesteads. Wouldn't Charlie be ofage before the time came to take out a patent for the land?
"But he is not of age to enter upon and hold the land now," said hisfather, stiffly.
So it was settled that the two men should enter upon the quarter-sectionof farming land, and build a cabin as soon as convenient, and that theclaim on the North Fork, which had a fine grove of timber on it,should be set apart for the boys, and a cabin built there, too. Thecabin in the timber need not be built until late in the autumn; thatclaim could be taken up by Mr. Howell, or by Mr. Bryant; by and by theywould draw lots to decide which. Before sundown that night, they hadstaked out the corners of the one hundred and sixty acre lot offarming land, on which the party had arrived in the morning.
It was dark before they returned from looking over the timber land inthe bend of the North Fork of the Republican.
Boy Settlers: A Story of Early Times in Kansas Page 10
