Produced by Roger Frank, Robert Homa, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net PRAIRIE FOLKS By HAMLIN GARLAND, AUTHOR OF "MAIN-TRAVELED ROADS," "A MEMBER OF THE THIRD HOUSE," "A SPOIL OF OFFICE," ETC., ETC. F. J. SCHULTE & COMPANY PUBLISHERS CHICAGO. M DCCC XCIII ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright, 1892, by HAMLIN GARLAND. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Prairie Folks. Pioneers. They rise to mastery of wind and snow; They go like soldiers grimly into strife, To colonize the plain; they plow and sow, And fertilize the sod with their own life As did the Indian and the buffalo. Settlers. Above them soars a dazzling sky, In winter blue and clear as steel, In summer like an Arctic sea Wherein vast icebergs drift and reel And melt like sudden sorcery. Beneath them plains stretch far and fair, Rich with sunlight and with rain; Vast harvests ripen with their care And fill with overplus of grain Their square, great bins. Yet still they strive! I see them rise At dawn-light, going forth to toil: The same salt sweat has filled my eyes, My feet have trod the self-same soil Behind the snarling plow. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- CONTENTS UNCLE ETHAN'S SPECULATION 11 THE TEST OF ELDER PILL 33 WILLIAM BACON'S HIRED MAN 73 SIM BURNS'S WIFE 101 SATURDAY NIGHT ON THE FARM 143 VILLAGE CRONIES 169 DRIFTING CRANE 187 OLD DADDY DEERING 201 THE SOCIABLE AT DUDLEY'S 227 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- PART I. UNCLE ETHAN'S SPECULATION IN PATENT MEDICINES. A certain guileless trust in human kind Too often leads them into nets Spread by some wandering trader, Smooth, and deft, and sure. UNCLE ETHAN RIPLEY. Uncle Ethan had a theory that a man's character could be told by the way he sat in a wagon seat. "A mean man sets right plumb in the _middle_ o' the seat, as much as to say, 'Walk, gol darn yeh, who cares?' But a man that sets in one corner o' the seat, much as to say, 'Jump in--cheaper t' ride 'n to walk,' you can jest tie to."