The Conquest: The Story of a Negro Pioneer

  CHAPTER XLII

  A YEAR OF COINCIDENCES

  Although the drouth had been broken all over the north, it lingered on,to the south. My parents wrote me from Kansas, that thousands of acresof wheat, sown early in the fall, had failed to sprout. It had been sodry. The ground was as dry as powder, and the winds were blowing thegrain out of the sandy soil, which was drifting in great piles along thefences and in the road.

  The government's final estimated yield of all crops was the smallest ithad been for ten years. As a result, loan companies who had allowedinterest to accumulate for one and two years, in the hope that thefarmers and other investors would be able to sell, such having been theconditions of the past, now began to threaten foreclosure and moneybecame hard to get.

  From the south came reports that many counties in Oklahoma, that wereloaded with debt, had defaulted for two years on the interest, andCounty warrants, that had always brought a premium, sold at a discount.

  The rain that had followed the drouth, in the north, as the wintermonths set in, began to move south, and about Christmas came theheaviest snows the south had known for years. With the snows came lowtemperatures that lasted for weeks. As far south as Oklahoma city, zeroweather gripped the country, and to the west the cattle left on theranges froze to death by the thousands. A large part of those thatlived--few were fit for the market, they were so thin--were sold toeastern speculators at gift prices, due to the fact that rough feed wasnot to be had.

  The heavy snows that covered the entire country, from the RockyMountains to the Atlantic, and the bitter cold weather that followed,made shipping hazardous. Therefore, the rural districts suffered inevery way. Snow continued to fall and the cold weather held forth, untilit was to be seen, when warm weather arrived, the change would besudden, and floods would result, such was the case.

  It was a year of coincidences; the greatest drouth known for years,followed by the coldest winter and the heaviest snows, and these in turnby disastrous floods, will live long in memory.

  To me the days were long, and the nights lonely. The late fall rainskept my flax growing until winter had set in, and snow fell before itwas all harvested. All I could see of my crop was little whiteelevations over the field. There was no chance to get it threshed. Mycapital had all been exhausted, and it was a dismal prospect indeed. Iused to sit there in my wife's lonely claim-house, with nothing else tooccupy my mind but to live over the happy events connected with ourcourtship and marriage, and the sad events following her departure.

  During my life on the Little Crow, I had looked forward joyfully to thetime when I should be a husband and father, with a wife to love, and ahome of my own. This had been so dominant in my mind, that when Ithought it over, I could not clearly realize the present situation. Ilived in a sort of stupor and my very existence seemed to be a dreadfulnightmare. I would at times rouse myself, pinch the flesh, and moveabout, to see if it was my real self; and would try to shake off theloneliness which completely enveloped me. My head ached and my heart waswrung with agony.

  I read a strange story, but its contents seemed so true to life. Itrelated the incident of a criminal who had made an escape from aprison--not for freedom, but to get away for only an hour, that he mightfind a cat, or a dog, or something, that he could love.

  It seems he had been an author, and by chance came upon a woman--duringthe time of his escape--who permitted him to love her, and during theshort recess, to her he recited a poem entitled, "The right to love."The words of that poem burned in my mind.

  "Love is only where is reply, I speak, you answer; There am I, And that is life everlasting."

  "Love lives, to seek reply. I speak, no answer; Then I die, To seek reincarnation."

  As the cold days and long nights passed slowly by, and I cared for thestock and held down my wife's claim, the title of that story evolved inmy mind, and I would repeat it until it seemed to drive me nearinsanity. I sought consolation in hope, and the winter days passed atlast; but I continued to hope until I had grown to feel that when I sawmy wife and called to her name, she would hear me and see the longing inmy heart and soul; then would come the day of redemption.