He held tight to the Atlas and walked on. Strong yearning possessed him to build again—and better than before—the valorous dream. If it should all expire, he would be able to rebuild it. He would walk on in his old black schoolmaster’s suit, shaking from Family Bibles, McGuffey Readers, Histories of America, Latin and Greek Texts, Free Enquirers, Declarations of Independence and Constitutions, the seeds of words, planting the virgin earth of America with springing forms.
So each man had to build his world again!
So he would plant again and yet again the legend of Raintree County, the story of a man’s days on the breast of the land. So he would plant great farms where the angular reapers walk all day, whole prairies of grass and wheat rising in waves on the headlands. So he would plant the blond corn in the valleys of Raintree County. Yes, he would plant once more the little towns, Waycrosses and Danwebsters, and the National Roads to far horizons, passing to blue days and westward adventures, and progress, the cry of a whistle, arcs of the highflung bridges, and rails and the thundering trains. (Hail and farewell at the crossing!) He would plant cities, clusters of blazing jewels on the dark flesh of the night, and faces shining under the glare of the great fires—San Francisco, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York, Washington, Washington, Washington, and parts between, cities and dwellers in cities, a dragon seed, a harvest of fury. (Shall there be one man hungry, and I go fed!) He would plant gilded years and gilded dreams, the young men wandering lost in metropolitan jungles, and the place where the great trains come to rest. He would plant science, explorers of matter, finders of new species, the august ascent of man from form to form, and honest doubts and dark misgivings. (Are you there, old truepenny, reverse of the coin!) He would plant the young messiahs down from the hills, divinely arrogant heroes, makers of bread and beatitudes, the gentle gods dying on angry crosses, and new crusades, and fearless emancipations. He would plant the anniversaries of mankind, celebrations of great beginnings.
He would plant the Republic of Mankind.
Yes, he would plant the great fair dream, again and ever; he would record it on paper so that it might be found from time to time among old manuscripts in a forgotten drawer of the Cosmos.
Did you think that I had lost the way? Did you think that I was drowned in darkness and the swamp? But I was here always, bearing a stem of the summer grass.
Make way, make way for the Hero of Raintree County! His victory is not in consummations but in quests!
Bearing the huge book of Raintree County, he walked along the now entirely deserted street of Waycross, approached his own home, and entered the gate. The town lay somewhere in infinite night, hushed and potential with all mystery and meaning.
Where was the town of Waycross at night when the sleepers all were sleeping?
But where were the trains that only lightly disturbed the ears of dreamers, and where was the whereness of a dreamer, dreaming dreams in an upstairs bedroom of a little town beside a road in America long ago? For in a little time, he knew that he would be that dreamer, lost in darkness, lost and yet not lost, away and yet at home, forever awake and yet forever dreaming. He would be that dreamer, and he would have perhaps again his ancient and eternal dream. . . .
Of a quest for the sacred Tree of Life. Of a happy valley and a face of stone—and of the coming of a hero. Of mounds beside the river. Of threaded bones of lovers in the earth. Of shards of battles long ago. Of names upon the land, the fragments of forgotten language. Of beauty risen from the river and seen through rushes at the river’s edge. Of the people from whom the hero sprang, the eternal, innocent children of mankind. Of their towns and cities and the weaving millions. Of the earth on which they lived—its blue horizons east and west, exultant springs, soft autumns, brilliant winters. And of all its summers when the days were long.
So dreaming, he held the golden bough still in his hand. So dreaming, he neared the shrine where the tree was and the stones and the letters upon them. And the branch quivered alive in his hands, unrolled its bark, became a map covered with lines and letters, a poem of mute but lovely meanings, a page torn from the first book printed by man, the legend of a life upon the earth and of a river running through the land, a signature of father and preserver, of some young hero and endlessly courageous dreamer
Chronology of Some Historical Events
CHRONOLOGY OF SOME HISTORICAL EVENTS
With Bearing on the Story of
RAINTREE COUNTY
1816
Indiana becomes a State.
1801–1847
John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed) plants apple-tree nurseries in the Middle West.
1826
New Harmony, Indiana, founded by Robert Owen on the southern Wabash.
1844, November
James K. Polk, Democrat, defeats Henry Clay, Whig, in Presidential Election.
1846–1848
The War with Mexico.
1846, August
The Wilmot Proviso, proposing that land acquired from Mexico be free territory, reopens the slavery controversy.
1847, September 11
Stephen Foster’s ‘Oh! Susanna’ sung, probably for the first time, at Andrews’ Eagle Ice Cream Saloon in Pittsburgh.
1848
January 24
Gold discovered in California.
July 4
Cornerstone of the Washington Monument laid.
November
General Zachary Taylor, Whig, wins Presidential Election.
1851
Hawthorne’s story ‘The Great Stone Face’ published in The Snow Image.
1852
Uncle Tom’s Cabin published.
1854
May 25
Kansas–Nebraska Bill passed.
July 6
A Republican Party founded in convention at Jackson, Michigan.
October 16
The ‘Peoria Speech’ makes Abraham Lincoln famous throughout the Northwest for its clear statement of the moral and political case against slavery and its extension.
1855
Hiawatha and Leaves of Grass published.
1856, November
James Buchanan, Democrat, defeats John C. Frémont, Republican, in Presidential Election.
1858, June 16
Lincoln opens senatorial campaign against Douglas with ‘House Divided’ speech.
1859
October 16
John Brown raids Harper’s Ferry.
December 2.
John Brown hanged at Charles Town, Virginia.
1860, November
Lincoln elected President of the United States.
1861
February 8
Confederate Government formed.
March 4
Lincoln inaugurated in Washington.
April 12–14
Fort Sumter besieged and surrendered; Civil War begins.
1863
January 1
The Emancipation Proclamation.
May 2–4
The Battle of Chancellorsville.
July 1–3
The Battle of Gettysburg.
July 8–13
Morgan’s Raid passes through Indiana.
September 19–20
The Battle of Chickamauga.
September–November
The Siege of Chattanooga.
November 19
Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address.
November 25
The Battle of Missionary Ridge.
1864
November 14–16
The destruction of Atlanta, Georgia.
Nov. 15–Dec. 10
Sherman’s Army marches to the Sea.
1865
February 17
Fall of Columbia, South Carolina.
March 4
Lincoln inaugurated for a second term.
April 9
Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Court House.
April 14
Lincoln
shot by John Wilkes Booth in Ford’s Theatre in Washington.
May 23–24
The Grand Review in Washington.
1869, May 10
The Golden Spike driven at Promontory Point, linking the continent by rail.
1869–1877
Presidential term of Ulysses S. Grant.
1876
June 26
Custer Massacre at the Little Big Horn.
July 4
Centennial Fourth in Philadelphia; America is one hundred years old.
November
Disputed Presidential Election between Tilden and Hayes; finally awarded to Hayes.
1877, July
The Great Railroad Strike.
1892
June
Republicans nominate Benjamin Harrison for President; Democrats nominate Grover Cleveland.
July 1
Carnegie and Company lock out 3800 men on a wage dispute at Homestead.
July 4
The Populist Party convenes at Omaha, Nebraska.
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