Winning the Wilderness

"Here's yo' letter from the Fillippians, Mis' Virginia; Mr. Champers done bring hit for you all." Boanerges Peeperville fairly danced into the living room of the Sunflower Inn....

And I see, from my higher level, It is not the path but the pace That wearies the back, and dims the eye, And writes the lines on the face. --Margaret E. Sangster.

I have eaten your bread and salt, I have drunk your water and wine; The deaths ye died I have watched beside, And the lives ye led were mine. --Kipling.

The sunny plains of Kansas were fair and full of growing in the spring of 1898. The alfalfa creeping out against the weeds of the old Cloverdale Ranch was green under the April...

Although the figtree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines, the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off fr...

I love the world with all its brave endeavor, I love its winds and floods, its suns and sands, But, oh, I love most deeply and forever The clinging touch of timid little hands.

Amid all the din Of the everyday battle some peace may begin, Like the silence of God in its regal content, Till we learn what the lesson of yesterday meant.

Malolos and Bocaue's trenches know the Kansas yell; San Fernando and San Tomas the Kansas story swell; At Guiguinto's fiercest battle yon flag in honor flew; What roaring rifles...

...Scores of better men had died. I could reach the township living, but--He knew what terrors tore me-- But I didn't! But I didn't! I went down the other side. --The Explorer.

John Jacobs little realized how true was his estimate of the firm of "Champers & Co." Nor did he suspect that at this very minute the firm was in council in the small room beyon...

The twilight had fallen on the prairie. Grass River, running bank full from the heavy May rains, lay like a band of molten silver glistening in the after-sunset light. The draw,...

Dr. Carey and Thaine Aydelot sat watching the play of a fountain in a moonlit garden of tropical loveliness. In the Manila hospital Thaine had gone far down the Valley of the Sh...

The next day, and for many days following, the wind blew; fiercely and unceasingly it blew, carrying every movable thing before it. Whatever was tending in its direction, it hel...

Two things greater than all things are. One is Love, and the other War. And since we know not how War may prove, Heart of my heart, let us talk of Love. --The Ballad of the King...

The old Aydelot farm reached quite down to the little village of Cloverdale, from which it was separated by Clover Creek. But the Aydelot farmhouse stood a good half-mile away u...

Little they knew what wealth untold Lay hid where the desolate prairies rolled: Who would have dared, with brush or pen, As this land is now, to paint it then? --Allerton.

Dear Mother of Christ, who motherhood blessed, All life in thy Son is complete. The length of a day, the century's tale Of years do His purpose repeat. As wide as the world a sy...

Sons and daughters of the prairie, Dreaming, dreaming, Of the starry nights that vary, Gleaming, gleaming! You may wander o'er your country where the vales and mountains be, You...

Also, we will make promise. So long as the Blood endures, I shall know that your will is mine; ye shall feel that my strength is yours. --A Song of the English.

Have I named one single river? Have I claimed one single acre? Have I kept one single nugget (barring samples)? No, not I. Because my price was paid me ten times over by my Make...

The second generation gave little thought to what was filling the minds of the first settlers tonight. The company was a large one and a dozen years later more than one young ma...

With successive seasons of good crops, combining with the time of the crest between two eras of financial depression, and with Eastern capital easy to reach, a mania of speculat...

Thomas Smith had been paid the two hundred dollars and had fully released the land to Champers to finish the sale. Unfortunately for Champers, Smith still hung about Wykerton, a...

Impulsive, earnest, prompt to act, And make her generous thought a fact, Keeping with many a light disguise The secret of self-sacrifice, O heart sore-tried! thou hast the best...

XIII The Rollcall 207 XIV The Second Generation 224 XV The Coburn Book 238 XVI The Humaneness of Champers 263 XVII The Purple Notches 274 XVIII Remembering the _Maine_ 289 XIX T...

CHAPTER PAGE I The Blessing of Asher 1 II The Sign of the Sunflower 16 III The Will of the Wind 30 IV Distress Signals 45 V A Plainsman of the Old School 58 VI When the Grasshop...

Give me the land where miles of wheat Ripple beneath the wind's light feet, Where the green armies of the corn Sway in the first sweet breath of morn; Give me the large and libe...

The old Antaean fable of strength renewed from the ground Was a human truth for the ages; since the hour of the Eden-birth. That man among men was strongest who stood with his f...