Back in the darkness I saw the tall figure of Grandma
Thorndyke, who seemed to be looking steadily off into the distance.
Virginia locked arms with her and they went away leaving me with my cows
and my empty wagon--filled with the goods in which I took so much pride
when I left Madison.
With the first rift of light in the east I rose from my sleepless bed
under the wagon--I would not profane her couch inside by occupying
it--and yoked up my cattle. Before noon I was in Cedar Falls; and from
there west I found the Ridge Road growing less and less a beaten track
owing to decreasing travel; but plainly marked by stakes which those two
pioneers had driven along the way as I have said for the guidance of
others in finding a road which they had missed themselves.
We were developing citizenship and the spirit of America. Those wagon
loads of stakes cut on the Cedar River in 1854 and driven in the prairie
sod as guides for whoever might follow showed forth the true spirit of
the American pioneer.
But I was in no frame of mind to realize this. I was drawing nearer and
nearer my farm, but for a day or so this gave me no pleasure. My mind
was on other things. I was lonelier than I had been since I found Rucker
in Madison. I talked to no one--I merely followed the stakes--until one
morning I pulled into a strange cluster of houses out on the green
prairie, the beginning of a village. I drew up in front of its
blacksmith shop and asked the name of the place.
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