The Land Claim — page 10: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

6 THE LAND-CLAIM. the truth—of a mésalliance ; he had won the love of an art- less girl, the daughter of a noble family which he served as gardener, and, with her, had fled to America. The mere child-wife of his deception learned her error only too late, and lived long enough to taste the bitterness of poverty as well as the more poignant sorrow of unkindness at the hands of the cruel and unforgiving man she was forced to call husband. The act of desertion had not only alienated her friends and family, but her fortune—the prize which Newcome had most coveted—was disposed of to others, and the beautiful woman only lived long enough to teach her daughter the grace and culture of a cultivated circle—to impart to her a mother’s beauty, and, alas, all her sorrows. : Newcome and his child occupied a claim close upon:the Missouri. Their newly-built log-cabin nestled close in upon the belt of timber which, fortunately, ran across the selected section of land, whose boundaries—well defined on three sides by the river, the woods, and a rayine cutting down through the bluffs—were still open and a matter of doubt on the fourth side. The “ blazing” of trees, and driving of stakes across the prairies, indicated the limits of the land “ located” by the preémptors, Where these lines were thus plainly marked, no doubts could arise as to each man’s proper possessions ; where the lines were not so marked, or where the stakes had been moved either by accident or design, the limits of the claim might become a matter of dispute. Such disputes often occurred, and afterward proved the source of much lit- igation as well as violence. On the fourth side, Newcome’s lines were not definitely indicated, and trespassers were not long in waiting. The rich soil adjacent had been located by one of four young men, whose cabin reposed on the bosom of the prairie in the midst of their conjoined claims, The Englishman found the stakes driven on what he conceived to be his soil; whereupon his unruly spirit became aroused to its fullest extent, and he proceeded to pull up the offending landmarks. The stakes, however, were replaced by his bachelor neighbors, and the intimation given that they should insist upon their line—an intimation which stirred Newcome’s heart to the point of resorting to powder and ball to defend his claim. Against Comic oooks.conn