AN AMERICAN ROMANCE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1243, 25 December 1885, Page 3

AN AMERICAN ROMANCE.

ffttoKßtCK (Dak.), October 7.. The prairie (he* which have brou >ht de» eolation an I poverty to hondre Is in this section br»u ht a husband to one young woman, A yea- ago last .spring, Fannie Jordon took up a faint of 1 )0 aer-s abo-ti, 9 nailea north of here, and struck out for h»r'-“ self, She came to Dako.a font Illinois, though she was born in the East. Not much was known about her for several months, as she was shy and retiring ; but when she finally became a-quiintol with her neighbours they discovers I that the girl had the real mettle in her, and predicted that she would be rich before ehe was thirty, TniU-ih far from muscu'ar. Fannie was the picture of health, and she easily carried off the palm as the best looking uiri farmer in the county. Like the majority of her sisters, she ha-i no time to devotb to the gallants of the n-ightxm hood, and for a year and a half she led a bar,), grinding existence practising the closest economy, and working from early morning un'illateat night. Some of her friends finally discovered that the girl had a bis'ory. »s ra my such heroic adventurers In this country. She had lived in comfortable circumstances"hi a rural Illinois town until' the death of her father revealed the fact that be ha I lose nototly his own property but a trust fund belonging to a re'aiive, not yet of age, by his fat .1 propensity for spwulvting in the | Chicago gain market. Ihe girl felt her I position keenly, and, though shs had ex 1 pccted ■ on to I>e tn*r ied, shs reso utely . turned from her lover and sought' the For West. She had read of the success achieved by young women as f inner* in this vicinity, and persuading her mother that this was their only hope of regaining their in ependence, an * at the same time mikuig good the deficit of their husoand an i father, the two converted what 1 ttl« p ope ty hj y had into cash here, Bfo e tb-ir departure the girl'absolve I the yrng man from h'S pledges, lint is answer to Lis re posted request gave him n nne rligbt hope that at a distant date, if he add remained; of the same mind,’she might consider apm position for him.' Under these cbcim stances the work of breaking and Working a farm in a new country was begun Th' . first year Fannie and her m ther ha I no help, and they di I not Saco ed in T • sin much. Not m>rr than a quart r of their Uni was ua lcrcultivation, and; the cropwere poor indeed. This yean with the as ristanoe of a Imy, they"did bette . T*«y | got morc thiu half of the farm in wheat. ’ and the crop wis on except nally good on-. Besides.this, they, had a frni ful garden, : from which they supplied fcfcuir own want- ■ and derive ) a xwall revenue. Tu ir wheat, on clinch' they hiilalrauty borrow il tuou-v, was jto have bin r.iiraebs I about two weeks »jo.lhut the machine did not a r rive, and It remained in gre : t sa -k* hear their "arn Pi curing an the results of their two yea r’ j Svork,. mother, and (laugher found that ’ i then) was a chance that this year’s crop Would clear them of debt, and that with oh* or two more favorable seas ms they j would be able to see the results of their ( I toil Y 1 hard ca-h. The prairie fire was a d anger which thev ■: hanjist taken in'o consideration. - When i Fannie heard that fires were reported at a I distance she ran furrows around her build- . a IPS* s»nd wheat stacks, and in other wavs , prepared for the visitation. Her neighbours . laid the same, sad when the fie* app arod | , near at hand nearly everyh-tdy went to , | fight them. Fannie’s mother rear doe ! at home when the girl went on thes - errands. ■ On returning to, her -plac i one evening 1 >-t week, the young worn n loan 1 fires in her way, and, being forced to make a long detour, it was dark Itefore she cun's to a ■ ’point where she could seedier farm. . Tue ! fires were raging fiercely van a she made up ( her mind tint her farm wa< threatened, if not already burned ovbr Somebody hat ’ , set back fie*, with the intention ’<>{ stop- , j’plng the conflagration, and this was the ( result. As fa*t a* her wary ami tombing | limbs would cany her th * girl dashed on,’ i a"d a few steps more sufSi'Cd to convince j her that her home and everything i; co rtained wa* lost. Wn*u she arrived at..the . place the house was’in ruins, tin biro was j" ready to fall, and'the great wheat-stacks' , .were glowing hj ap* of e nlm'S., The earth j was hot underneath bar f ot, an t ihe air almost stifling. -Sbe callo I for h*r mo h-r r and called again. No one answered, .’Sue } became sick with fear ami foreboding, and thought of flight, but there was no place to which she could- go fo> hj ip. The 'fins were all round her, making th - heavens lurid and the air ha ivy, and so to t.ba proy sencoof her crushing disas er, the girl wit down an I wept. - All night long she ait hv the rain of her home, an i when thewrn ‘ mg light appears t she made a careful search for her mother. Sbe was not in the ' ruin* of the house, an I 'the girl lip.mllhb f ’ easier, but in the ashes of the barn the old lady’s charred remain* . w-re found. She had evidently gone there alter doing all i» her power to save tha place for tho purpose of tasini the horsu an 1 miking her esc ipe; •>Ut overcome with the heat Or p >s*'l>lv, unable to manage the beast, both bad pert-hed together. Fannie’s mother was buried on Sunday by the neighbours, most of whom, like the girl, had lost nearly everything What was to be done nobody knew. Where all were penniless an 1 wramhed there was n > advice that could be followed, and ail seemel stunned bv the calamity winch ha t. come noon thorn’. On Tu slay Fannie visited her farm for the last time, intending to leave that diy for the railroad and seek assistance, she knew not what or of whom Her poverty was absolute. Her ' debts were greater than her equity in-the land. Everything that she had on eartu i was destroyed except the clothing that shed wore. She stoo l by the ruined homo and'l looked out for mites on blackened prairie.'l The sky was overcast with l-aden clouds,' | and tha wind blew onsn and cold from ihe north. Above and below everything was dark.-but the sombre view was not blacker than her own future. She bn riel her face’, in her ban s and turned from the desolate scene just in time to hear the clatter of hoofs oo the roalway, and looking up the girl saw the fellow from Illinois whom’she had left in despair eightee'h months ago. He rode up to her, j imp* I from his horse, an I addressed her quietly. > She had little to say, and there was not much that ha ronldsav, as hi* appearance cased a fresh flow of tears to flow. He told her that he had tead of her mother's death an i of their loses by fire, and had come by the first train in the hope that he could bo of service to her. He would do anything that she said. He bad money and time.lf she wanted to rebuild ha would stay and boss the job. If she'wanted to go back tu Illinois ho would go/ with her, and they conkl settle the matter up here at thiir leisure. If she disliked him and wanted him to cleitr oat he would do that too, but, to tell the truth,-' be said, be wanted her, and he belie ed and hoped she wanted.him now. He’looked around on tha waste, and the-girl raised her eves, swept tha blackened earth, with them to the point whore the lead of the olouds touched die flameswept earth.. It was pride against holp’essness and love, and the latter won. She deft with the yonng man that afternoon, and te a friend of hers h-re she said that she would never return as a farmer.— /•Soar It ark San.’