by Willa Cather
V
Alexandra and Emil spent five days down among the river farms,driving up and down the valley. Alexandra talked to the men abouttheir crops and to the women about their poultry. She spent awhole day with one young farmer who had been away at school, andwho was experimenting with a new kind of clover hay. She learneda great deal. As they drove along, she and Emil talked and planned.At last, on the sixth day, Alexandra turned Brigham's head northwardand left the river behind.
"There's nothing in it for us down there, Emil. There are a fewfine farms, but they are owned by the rich men in town, and couldn'tbe bought. Most of the land is rough and hilly. They can alwaysscrape along down there, but they can never do anything big. Downthere they have a little certainty, but up with us there is a bigchance. We must have faith in the high land, Emil. I want to holdon harder than ever, and when you're a man you'll thank me." Sheurged Brigham forward.
When the road began to climb the first long swells of the Divide,Alexandra hummed an old Swedish hymn, and Emil wondered why hissister looked so happy. Her face was so radiant that he felt shyabout asking her. For the first time, perhaps, since that landemerged from the waters of geologic ages, a human face was set towardit with love and yearning. It seemed beautiful to her, rich andstrong and glorious. Her eyes drank in the breadth of it, untilher tears blinded her. Then the Genius of the Divide, the great,free spirit which breathes across it, must have bent lower thanit ever bent to a human will before. The history of every countrybegins in the heart of a man or a woman.
Alexandra reached home in the afternoon. That evening she helda family council and told her brothers all that she had seen andheard.
"I want you boys to go down yourselves and look it over. Nothingwill convince you like seeing with your own eyes. The river landwas settled before this, and so they are a few years ahead of us,and have learned more about farming. The land sells for threetimes as much as this, but in five years we will double it. Therich men down there own all the best land, and they are buyingall they can get. The thing to do is to sell our cattle and whatlittle old corn we have, and buy the Linstrum place. Then the nextthing to do is to take out two loans on our half-sections, and buyPeter Crow's place; raise every dollar we can, and buy every acrewe can."
"Mortgage the homestead again?" Lou cried. He sprang up and beganto wind the clock furiously. "I won't slave to pay off anothermortgage. I'll never do it. You'd just as soon kill us all,Alexandra, to carry out some scheme!"
Oscar rubbed his high, pale forehead. "How do you propose to payoff your mortgages?"
Alexandra looked from one to the other and bit her lip. They hadnever seen her so nervous. "See here," she brought out at last."We borrow the money for six years. Well, with the money we buya half-section from Linstrum and a half from Crow, and a quarterfrom Struble, maybe. That will give us upwards of fourteen hundredacres, won't it? You won't have to pay off your mortgages for sixyears. By that time, any of this land will be worth thirty dollarsan acre--it will be worth fifty, but we'll say thirty; then youcan sell a garden patch anywhere, and pay off a debt of sixteenhundred dollars. It's not the principal I'm worried about, it'sthe interest and taxes. We'll have to strain to meet the payments.But as sure as we are sitting here to-night, we can sit down hereten years from now independent landowners, not struggling farmersany longer. The chance that father was always looking for hascome."
Lou was pacing the floor. "But how do you KNOW that land is goingto go up enough to pay the mortgages and--"
"And make us rich besides?" Alexandra put in firmly. "I can'texplain that, Lou. You'll have to take my word for it. I KNOW,that's all. When you drive about over the country you can feel itcoming."
Oscar had been sitting with his head lowered, his hands hangingbetween his knees. "But we can't work so much land," he saiddully, as if he were talking to himself. "We can't even try. Itwould just lie there and we'd work ourselves to death." He sighed,and laid his calloused fist on the table.
Alexandra's eyes filled with tears. She put her hand on hisshoulder. "You poor boy, you won't have to work it. The men intown who are buying up other people's land don't try to farm it.They are the men to watch, in a new country. Let's try to dolike the shrewd ones, and not like these stupid fellows. I don'twant you boys always to have to work like this. I want you to beindependent, and Emil to go to school."
Lou held his head as if it were splitting. "Everybody will say weare crazy. It must be crazy, or everybody would be doing it."
"If they were, we wouldn't have much chance. No, Lou, I was talkingabout that with the smart young man who is raising the new kindof clover. He says the right thing is usually just what everybodydon't do. Why are we better fixed than any of our neighbors? Becausefather had more brains. Our people were better people than thesein the old country. We OUGHT to do more than they do, and seefurther ahead. Yes, mother, I'm going to clear the table now."
Alexandra rose. The boys went to the stable to see to the stock,and they were gone a long while. When they came back Lou played onhis DRAGHARMONIKA and Oscar sat figuring at his father's secretaryall evening. They said nothing more about Alexandra's project,but she felt sure now that they would consent to it. Just beforebedtime Oscar went out for a pail of water. When he did not comeback, Alexandra threw a shawl over her head and ran down the pathto the windmill. She found him sitting there with his head in hishands, and she sat down beside him.
"Don't do anything you don't want to do, Oscar," she whispered.She waited a moment, but he did not stir. "I won't say any moreabout it, if you'd rather not. What makes you so discouraged?"
"I dread signing my name to them pieces of paper," he said slowly."All the time I was a boy we had a mortgage hanging over us."
"Then don't sign one. I don't want you to, if you feel that way."
Oscar shook his head. "No, I can see there's a chance that way.I've thought a good while there might be. We're in so deep now, wemight as well go deeper. But it's hard work pulling out of debt.Like pulling a threshing-machine out of the mud; breaks your back.Me and Lou's worked hard, and I can't see it's got us ahead much."
"Nobody knows about that as well as I do, Oscar. That's why I wantto try an easier way. I don't want you to have to grub for everydollar."
"Yes, I know what you mean. Maybe it'll come out right. But signingpapers is signing papers. There ain't no maybe about that." Hetook his pail and trudged up the path to the house.
Alexandra drew her shawl closer about her and stood leaning againstthe frame of the mill, looking at the stars which glittered sokeenly through the frosty autumn air. She always loved to watchthem, to think of their vastness and distance, and of their orderedmarch. It fortified her to reflect upon the great operationsof nature, and when she thought of the law that lay behind them,she felt a sense of personal security. That night she had a newconsciousness of the country, felt almost a new relation to it.Even her talk with the boys had not taken away the feeling that hadoverwhelmed her when she drove back to the Divide that afternoon.She had never known before how much the country meant to her. Thechirping of the insects down in the long grass had been like thesweetest music. She had felt as if her heart were hiding downthere, somewhere, with the quail and the plover and all the littlewild things that crooned or buzzed in the sun. Under the longshaggy ridges, she felt the future stirring.
PART II. Neighboring Fields