The Homesteader: A Novel

by Oscar Micheaux

  Produced by Cathy Maxam and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file wasproduced from images generously made available by TheInternet Archive)

  THE HOMESTEADER

  From a painting by W.M. Farrow.

  "SOMETHING HAPPENED AND I WAS STRANGELY GLAD AND CAME HERE BECAUSEI--I--JUST _HAD_ TO SEE YOU, JEAN."]

  THE HOMESTEADER

  _A NOVEL_

  BY OSCAR MICHEAUX Author of "The Forged Note"

  _ILLUSTRATED BY W.M. FARROW_

  SIOUX CITY, IOWA WESTERN BOOK SUPPLY COMPANY PUBLISHERS

  COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY OSCAR MICHEAUX ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  BELOVED MOTHER

  THIS TO YOU

  PUBLISHERS TO THE READER

  _How much of the story of Jean Baptiste is a work of the author's ownimagination and how much comes from an authentic source we do notconsider it necessary to say. But that he has in this instance drawnmore largely and directly from fact than is the practice of the novelistis admitted, and we have his consent therefore, to make certainstatements concerning himself that relate to the story, and why he haswritten it._

  _To begin with, that which any writer has been more closely associatedwith, are the things he can best portray. Wherefore, in "THEHOMESTEADER," Oscar Micheaux has written largely along the lines he haslived, and, naturally of what he best knows. His experience has beensomewhat unusual; his association largely out of the ordinary. Bornthirty-three years ago in Southern Illinois, he left those parts at anearly age to come into his larger education in the years that followedthrough extensive traveling and a varied association. Purchasing arelinquishment on a homestead in South Dakota at the age of twenty; fiveyears later he had succeeded and owned considerable lands in the countrywherein he had settled. Always literarily inclined he wrote articles fornewspapers and magazines as a beginner, and then during his twenty-sixthand twenty-seventh years occurred the conflicting incident that changedthe whole course of his life, and gave him more than anything else, thesubsequent material for the building of this story._

  _Shortly after this his first book appeared, and he at last had foundhis calling. He wrote his second book two years later. But the episodethat had changed his life from ranching to writing was ever in his mindand always so forcibly until he was never a contented man until he hadwritten it--and "The Homesteader" is the story._

  CONTENTS

  EPOCH THE FIRST

  CHAPTER PAGE

  I AGNES 13

  II THE HOMESTEADER 21

  III AT THE SOD HOUSE 28

  IV SHE COULD NEVER BE ANYTHING TO HIM 37

  V WHEN THE INDIANS SHOT THE TOWN UP 43

  VI THE INFIDEL, A JEW AND A GERMAN 49

  VII THE DAY BEFORE 56

  VIII AN ENTERPRISING YOUNG MAN 61

  IX "CHRISTINE! CHRISTINE!" 75

  X "YOU HAVE NEVER BEEN THIS WAY BEFORE" 80

  XI WHAT JEAN BAPTISTE FOUND IN THE WELL 85

  XII MISS STEWART RECEIVES A CALLER 89

  XIII THE COMING OF THE RAILROAD 97

  XIV THE ADMINISTRATING ANGEL 107

  XV OH, MY JEAN 115

  XVI "BILL" PRESCOTT PROPOSES 123

  XVII HARVEST TIME AND WHAT CAME WITH IT 131

  EPOCH THE SECOND

  I REGARDING THE INTERMARRIAGE OF RACES 143

  II WHICH? 153

  III MEMORIES--N. JUSTINE MCCARTHY 159

  IV ORLEAN 174

  V A PROPOSAL: A PROPOSITION; A CERTAIN MRS. PRUITT--AND A LETTER 186

  VI THE PRAIRIE FIRE 190

  VII VANITY 196

  VIII MARRIED 207

  IX ORLEAN RECEIVES A LETTER AND ADVICE 212

  X EUGENE CROOK 221

  XI REVEREND MCCARTHY PAYS A VISIT 227

  XII REVEREND MCCARTHY DECIDES TO SET BAPTISTE RIGHT, BUT-- 234

  XIII THE WOLF 240

  XIV THE CONTEST 247

  XV COMPROMISED 252

  XVI THE EVIL GENIUS 259

  XVII THE COWARD 267

  EPOCH THE THIRD

  I CHICAGO--THE BOOMERANG 279

  II THE GREAT QUESTION 284

  III GLAVIS MAKES A PROMISE 294

  IV THE GAMBLER'S STORY 299

  V THE PREACHER'S EVIL INFLUENCE 305

  VI MORE OF THE PREACHER'S WORK 311

  VII A GREAT ASTRONOMER 317

  VIII N. JUSTINE MCCARTHY PREACHES A SERMON 325

  IX WHAT THE PEOPLE WERE SAYING 332

  X "UNTIL THEN" 339

  XI "IT'S THE WRONG NUMBER" 346

  XII MRS. PRUITT EFFECTS A PLAN 354

  XIII MRS. MERLEY 363

  XIV "OH, MERCIFUL GOD! CLOSE THOU MINE EYES!" 369

  XV "LOVE YOU--GOD, I HATE YOU!" 376

  XVI A STRANGE DREAM 385

  EPOCH THE FOURTH

  I THE DROUGHT 395

  II THE FORECLOSURE 400

  III IRENE GREY 407

  IV WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN 414

  V "TELL ME WHY YOU DIDN'T ANSWER THE LAST LETTER I WROTE YOU" 421

  VI THE STORY 427

  VII HER BIRTHRIGHT "FOR A MESS OF POTTAGE" 436

  VIII ACTION 440

  IX GOSSIP 446

  X A DISCOVERY--AND A SURPRISE 456

  XI THE BISHOP'S INQUISITION 464

  XII THE BISHOP ACTS 479

  XIII WHERE THE WEAK MUST BE STRONG 482

  XIV THE TRIAL--THE LIE--"AS GUILTY AS HELL!" 488

  XV GRIM JUSTICE 495

  XVI A FRIEND 502

  XVII THE MYSTERY 508

  XVIII "VENGEANCE IS MINE. I WILL REPAY" 515

  XIX WHEN THE TRUTH BECAME KNOWN 523

  XX AS IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING 529