Neighbours Part 3

After two days and two nights we pa.s.sed through Winnipeg. It was in the grey of dawn, and we did not get off, but through the window we caught a glimpse of lines of lights down a wide and winding street.

Daylight saw us on the prairies; not the "bald-headed," to be sure, but the well settled country of the Portage Plains, where industry was already fructifying in trim houses and barns, and orderly, well-kept farms. And yet here and there was now the unbroken sweep of the prairies, and our eyes danced and something caught our breath as we tried to imagine what they meant. We knew what it was for men to spend their lives in clearing ten, twenty, or forty acres, but here lay a kingdom fresh from the hand of G.o.d and ready for the plow. And a piece of that kingdom in the still farther West--320 acres of that kingdom--was to be ours!

"And as much more as I can buy from year to year," said Jack, as though picking up the thread of our thoughts, his face alive with enthusiasm.

"Boy!" he said, banging me on the knee, "there's no limit; there's no limit!" I clasped his hand in mine with a pressure that told more than words.

At Brandon we got off to stretch our legs while they changed engines and filled the ice-boxes. It was the last day of April, and the station lay in a yellow flood of lazy spring suns.h.i.+ne. Against the railing which bordered the platform lounged groups of young men in s.h.i.+rt sleeves and overalls, easy-going types of farm laborers waiting for a job to hunt them down. The girls had gone a little ahead, and as they pa.s.sed such a group a young fellow in high boots and with a blue s.h.i.+rt open about his hairy neck intercepted them with the remark, "h.e.l.lo, girls; looking for a man?"

Jean turned a contemptuous nose in the air, and would have gone straight on, but Marjorie stopped, rivetted the inquirer with those flas.h.i.+ng eyes of hers and said, "Yes; is there one anywhere about?"

The young man threw up his arms as though to admit that the thrust was too much for him, and the girls walked on, while from the lounging groups came loud guffaws intended as a tribute to Marjorie's wit, and more largely, to the goodwill which the group bore toward these two young girls in particular, and to all girls in general.

"I couldn't have said that," said Jean, when they were out of earshot.

"I wouldn't have dared."

"Pshaw!" said the worldly-wise Marjorie, "there's nothing to those fellows. I could make any one of them eat out of my hand."

"I believe you could," said Jean.

All that day we continued through the prairies, with here and there a belt of scrubland to cut across the vision. All that day we rambled more and more in the field of fancy--happy imaginings of the things we would do with those farms of ours which lay out there, somewhere to the westward, waiting only to be claimed. And as evening came on we watched our first prairie sunset. There were no quick dusk and darkness, as in the East; the sun hung long in the western sky, and as it descended swung steadily to the northward. As it fell feather-like ruffles of cloud almost overhead burst to color in the richest mauves and crimsons, and long ribbons in the west floating like golden islands in a sea of amber, caught the glow and silently unfolded a glory of pink and yellow and orange and crimson and burnished bra.s.s. Silently and slowly the sun dipped into the prairies as into a world-wide sea, but the sunset continued; long after the great orb itself had disappeared, its radiance filled the western heavens, and even while the grey twilight gathered behind us our train seemed speeding forward into a lake of saffron and champagne.

I turned to look at Jean. She sat by the window where the yellow light blocked out her fine profile against the drab back-ground of the car, and mingled in the richer yellow of her hair. And her blue eyes were all a-glisten, as the long, fine lashes drooped and rose and drooped and rose. And in the corner of her eye I saw a little pearl gather and grow until, unrestrained, it stole across her cheek.

"Regina!" shouted Jack; "Regina!" springing to his feet and beginning to gather up our effects, for we had agreed that this should be the base of our search for land. We were ready to disembark by the time the train had come to a stop, and our first glimpse of the prairie city was that of buildings silhouetted against a saffron sky, and wide streets and open s.p.a.ces and the foundation-work of the metropolis that was to be.

Gaines had recommended an hotel, and we were soon located for the night.

CHAPTER IV.

Jack and I were early about in the morning, intent upon making our prospecting arrangements. We asked a casual question of an early morning lounger at a livery stable--some of these fellows seemed to get up at daylight for the express purpose of lounging--and he flung his voice over his shoulder into the recesses of the barn. "Jake!" he called; "two guys here to see yuh."

Jake was evidently feeding his horses, for we heard the rustle of hay and caught a whiff of its fragrance, but presently he came stumping down the main thoroughfare between the stalls. He was a short man with an over-developed waist line--quite the opposite of the lean and lanky Westerner our imaginations had been picturing. Although it was still early and there was a nip to the air of the first morning in May, he wore neither coat nor waistcoat nor collar nor tie, and the neckband of his s.h.i.+rt was unb.u.t.toned and revealed a generous expanse of throat and chest. He had recently been clean shaven, and he chewed tobacco with great gusto; tiny streamlets of the seductive fluid wound their way through little creases in his flesh which seemed to have been cut for the purpose from the corners of his mouth to the bottom of his chin.

"Well," he said, bringing his weight to a poise on his pudgy feet, and scrutinizing us closely through shrewd, half-closed eyes. "You fellows lookin' fer land?"

"That's what," said Jack, who was already beginning to pick up some of the direct vernacular of the West. "We want a man who knows the country to show us about."

"I'm your gazabo," said Jake, stuffing a fist in a trouser pocket and bringing forth a half-eaten plug of tobacco, from which he helped himself liberally. Then, evidently in sudden embarra.s.sment over his bad manners, he exclaimed, "Pardon me; my mistake!" and extended the plug to Jack and me. We declined.

"As I was sayin', I'm the original Kid McCoy when it comes to locatin'

land," he continued, when satisfied that we really did not chew tobacco, and that there was no offence in our refusal. "I know every badger-hole from Estevan to Prince Albert. I know every patch of stink-weed from Arcola to Swift Current. I've druv this country till there ain't a coyote between Montana an' the Saskatch'wan river but knows the rattle o' my bone-shaker. You boys. .h.i.t luck with your first throw--runnin' into me like this." Then, with a sharp squint through his half-closed eyes, and dropping his voice to a confidential note, "How much money you got?"

"Enough," said Jack, "but none to waste. What are your rates?"

Jake seemed to be turning a problem heavily in his mind. "I like you fellows," he said at length, "and I make you a special price. Usual I get seven dollars a day an' found fer drivin', an' fifty dollars for locatin'. That's fer each gent. Now I calls you two boys one gent an'

makes you the same price--seven bones an' a grub-stake whether we hit oil or not, an' fifty plunks extra if we do. An' we will. No question about that. I know two claims that's jus' sittin' up an' yelpin' fer you lads to come along."

We withdrew and talked the matter over for a few minutes. In spite of Jake's unprepossessing appearance and boastful language there was something appealing about him. He threw out a bluff, frank, independent suggestion of friendliness which reacted readily upon us, and he looked like a man who knew the country. We returned presently with our minds made up.

"We'll take your offer, Mr. ----" Jack commenced.

"Jake," he interrupted. "No mister."

"All right, Jake, we'll take your offer. When do we start, what do we take, and where do we go?"

Jake looked interrogatively at the morning sun. Then, "Had breakfast?"

he demanded.

"No."

"Well, fill up. You must be feelin' pretty well bored out after your trip. I'll start get the outfit together. I got a team of buckskins that's tougher than Little Eva in an Uncle Tom's Cabin show, an' a democrat bone-shaker that scuds across the prairie like the shadow of a cloud." (He had his poetic turns, had Jake). "I got a tent, but you'll need your own blankets. After breakfast we'll go over to a store an' buy a lay-out o' grub."

"How long will we be away?"

"Well, nat'rally we have to figger on driving out a good spell. Ain't no free land nowhere close to a city, a C-I-T-Y"--he spelled it out, with a whimisical mixture of pride and ridicule--"like this. Now I've a spot in my mind I think'll suit you boys right down the calf of the leg. It'll take us about three days to go, an' a day to look it over, an' three days to come back, which knocks the h.e.l.l out o' a week, don't it? An' it might be longer."

"You see, we have our sisters here. We have to give them some idea----"

"Sisters!" Jake exclaimed, evidently in some panic. "They ain't goin'

along?"

"No. They'll stay here until we get settled."

"That's all right, then," said Jake, visibly relieved. "Well, you tell 'em a week or ten days."

We related the morning's transactions to the girls, who accepted the situation with resignation, as it had been agreed that they would stay in Regina while we did our prospecting. They would at once set about to find cheaper lodgings, or a couple of rooms where they could keep house; they insisted that they were quite able to s.h.i.+ft for themselves. They would leave word of their new location at the hotel.

The forenoon was well gone by the time we had finished our arrangements and bought our "grub", which consisted mainly of canned goods and other preparations that would not spoil in the heat. The democrat was a two-seated affair, and the tent and supplies were bundled on behind, or laid in the bottom. We noted that Jake added a rifle to the equipment.

Then we started off, Jack in the front seat with the driver, and I alone behind.

For most of that day we drove through a country of almost absolutely level prairie, save for occasional rough spots which Jake described as "buffalo wallows", which threatened to throw us out of the "bone-shaker", as the buckskins never changed their pace, evidently still supposing that the democrat was following them like the shadow of a cloud. Jake told us that the buffalo wallows were once wet spots on the prairie where the buffalo came to roll in the mud, which had afterwards been baked hard by the sun. We did not know whether to accept this at face value, as it was not easy to tell when Jake was to be taken at par, but we agreed that that was a satisfactory explanation, and did not enter into a discussion. Through this country there were many evidences of prosperity and of the fertility of the soil, but Jake a.s.sured us that there was nothing to be had here, and in any case it was not to be compared with what we would find further on. The Westerner has a faith, which amounts almost to a religion, that there is always something better farther on.

During the day we discovered, also, that our guide was something of a philosopher. He had many shrewd remarks to make about immigrants, and homesteaders, and the business of settling up a country. It appeared that he had no very regular scale for his services. This came out in his account of the location of a young Englishman whom he described as Mr.

Spoof.

"He had a carload of baggage," said Jake, with Western extravagance of language, "and when I suggested that he start up a second-hand clothing store he said, 'Ah, I'm afraid you're spoofin' me.' So I named him Mr.

Spoof, an' he gets mail now addressed that way."

It seemed that Mr. Spoof had been inquiring in one of the hotels where he could cash a draft for sixty pounds when Jake took him in tow. "I knew that was no place for him--an' sixty pounds," said Jake, "so I hustled him out an' planted him on as slick a piece of farm land as ever grew a gopher. 'How much is your fee?' said he, very courtly, when it was all fixed up.

"'Sixty pounds,' says I, knowin' in advance the size of his wad.

"'My word!' says he. 'Isn't that a bit thick?'

"'Thick nothin'!' says I. 'Here I gets you a hundred an' sixty acres of land, as good as lies out doors, an' a chance to be a farmer, an' have your own stock an' herds an' house an' barn an' a wife an' a half-a-dozen kids--whad'ye expect for sixty pounds?'