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By Root 1735 0

for the country. She was down with the shakes for much of the fall, and the boy was quiet and subdued, seemingly already concerned that he was a disappointment to his father. Mr. James was a very handsome man, with long curling mustaches and thick golden hair, and the wife, whose name was Ivy, looked as though she had been a beauty. I am sure they went to the altar much celebrated and envied. I began to visit Mrs. James every few days, taking along some game each time I went, or wild plums, or honey. Whenever our friends came out from town, they brought us some delicacy or other, because they all liked Thomas so well. Mr. James was such a hard man that most folks bypassed their cabin altogether. Sometimes Mrs. James was strong enough to come to me and drink some tea.

The track between our cabin and the James cabin meandered through the woodlot and along the river flat. One day, after she had sat down and received her cup of tea, and little Eddie, as well, was seen to, Ivy said, "I see Mr. Jenkins is putting up his cabin at last."

"If so, then I’m hurt that he hasn’t come by, because I would like to repay him some of the hospitality the Jenkinses showed us in Lawrence."

"It’s at least sixteen by sixteen. And I saw a window propped up against a tree. I suppose they’re going to have a glass window."

"Well, their house in town is only a lean-to built of hay. I’m surprised they have the money for something like a window."

Mr. Jenkins’s new claim, a piece all the members of our party had contributed to, was almost in the middle of the group of claims, and also a piece that all of us knew the location of, including Mrs. James, who was somewhat abashed that her husband had already, or perhaps once again, caused conflict in the community. She wanted only to have friends in a place where he wanted only that others not underestimate him.

Two days later, I saw the cabin myself, and I also saw that none of those working on it was familiar to me. They were working fast, and the window, indeed a glass one, was already set in place. I was hunting, and soon got onto the track of a turkey, and so forgot the cabin until that evening, when Mr. Bush, Mr. Jenkins, and Mr. Bisket came knocking at the door and declared, as soon as they got inside and took off their hats, that some Border Ruffians had jumped the Jenkins claim and were raising a building on it, and furthermore swore that they had three hundred and twenty acres, twice the customary and legal number. Such a large acreage swallowed up everything of the Jenkinses’ and something of everyone else’s as well.

"They had a Negro woman there working," said Mr. Bisket. "I saw her."

"You didn’t see anything of the kind," said Mr. Jenkins. "But they’re Missourians for sure."

"At all events," said Mr. Bush, "they aren’t anyone with our company or anyone we know. It doesn’t matter whether they’ve got ten slaves there or whether they’ve got ten Congregational ministers. They took Jenkins’s claim and some of mine, and some of yours, too, Newton, that bit of a corner there between those two big oaks we marked. I won’t stand for it."

"We’ve got to make up a party and go over there and see how far the building has gone, and we’ve got to do it first thing tomorrow, before they start moving women and children in," said Mr. Jenkins resolutely.

"The only woman I saw was that Negro woman," said Mr. Bisket.

Mr. Jenkins dismissed him with a wave of the hand.

Thomas said, "Has anyone been over to see them yet?"

Mr. Jenkins shook his head. "We looked on from the woodlot. I counted five men and a half-grown boy. If there’s going to be an argument, I want to have at least that many men." He paused and looked at his feet for a second. "Though I’ll say this: I don’t think we should go armed for the first talk, or at least well armed. It might be just a misunderstanding."

"A twenty-by-twenty-foot cabin changes whatever was a misunderstanding into something else, in my opinion," said Mr. Bush, who seemed more exercised by the event than Mr. Jenkins.

"Mrs. James said she thought it was sixteen by sixteen,"