PART I .
The Wild Land I One January day , thirty years ago , the little town of Hanover , anchored on a windy Nebraska tableland , was trying not to be blown away .
A mist of fine snowflakes was curling and eddying about the cluster of low drab buildings huddled on the gray prairie , under a gray sky .
The dwelling-houses were set about haphazard on the tough prairie sod ; some of them looked as if they had been moved in overnight , and others as if they were straying off by themselves , headed straight for the open plain .
None of them had any appearance of permanence , and the howling wind blew under them as well as over them .
The main street was a deeply rutted road , now frozen hard , which ran from the squat red railway station and the grain “ elevator ” at the north end of the town to the lumber yard and the horse pond at the south end .
On either side of this road straggled two uneven rows of wooden buildings ; the general merchandise stores , the two banks , the drug store , the feed store , the saloon , the post-office .
The board sidewalks were gray with trampled snow , but at two o'clock in the afternoon the shopkeepers , having come back from dinner , were keeping well behind their frosty windows .
The children were all in school , and there was nobody abroad in the streets but a few rough-looking countrymen in coarse overcoats , with their long caps pulled down to their noses .
Some of them had brought their wives to town , and now and then a red or a plaid shawl flashed out of one store into the shelter of another .
At the hitch-bars along the street a few heavy work-horses , harnessed to farm wagons , shivered under their blankets .
About the station everything was quiet , for there would not be another train in until night .
On the sidewalk in front of one of the stores sat a little Swede boy , crying bitterly .
He was about five years old .
His black cloth coat was much too big for him and made him look like a little old man .
His shrunken brown flannel dress had been washed many times and left a long stretch of stocking between the hem of his skirt and the tops of his clumsy , copper-toed shoes .
His cap was pulled down over his ears ; his nose and his chubby cheeks were chapped and red with cold .
He cried quietly , and the few people who hurried by did not notice him .
He was afraid to stop any one , afraid to go into the store and ask for help , so he sat wringing his long sleeves and looking up a telegraph pole beside him , whimpering , “ My kitten , oh , my kitten !
Her will fweeze ! ”
At the top of the pole crouched a shivering gray kitten , mewing faintly and clinging desperately to the wood with her claws .
The boy had been left at the store while his sister went to the doctor 's office , and in her absence a dog had chased his kitten up the pole .
The little creature had never been so high before , and she was too frightened to move .
Her master was sunk in despair .
He was a little country boy , and this village was to him a very strange and perplexing place , where people wore fine clothes and had hard hearts .
He always felt shy and awkward here , and wanted to hide behind things for fear some one might laugh at him .
Just now , he was too unhappy to care who laughed .
At last he seemed to see a ray of hope : his sister was coming , and he got up and ran toward her in his heavy shoes .
His sister was a tall , strong girl , and she walked rapidly and resolutely , as if she knew exactly where she was going and what she was going to do next .
She wore a man 's long ulster ( not as if it were an affliction , but as if it were very comfortable and belonged to her ; carried it like a young soldier ) , and a round plush cap , tied down with a thick veil .
She had a serious , thoughtful face , and her clear , deep blue eyes were fixed intently on the distance , without seeming to see anything , as if she were in trouble .
She did not notice the little boy until he pulled her by the coat .
Then she stopped short and stooped down to wipe his wet face .
“ Why , Emil !
I told you to stay in the store and not to come out .
What is the matter with you ? ”
“ My kitten , sister , my kitten !
A man put her out , and a dog chased her up there . ”
His forefinger , projecting from the sleeve of his coat , pointed up to the wretched little creature on the pole .
“ Oh , Emil !
Did n't I tell you she 'd get us into trouble of some kind , if you brought her ?
What made you tease me so ?
But there , I ought to have known better myself . ”
She went to the foot of the pole and held out her arms , crying , “ Kitty , kitty , kitty , ” but the kitten only mewed and faintly waved its tail .
Alexandra turned away decidedly .
“ No , she wo n't come down .
Somebody will have to go up after her .
I saw the Linstrums ' wagon in town .
I 'll go and see if I can find Carl .
Maybe he can do something .
Only you must stop crying , or I wo n't go a step .
Where 's your comforter ?
Did you leave it in the store ?
Never mind .
Hold still , till I put this on you . ”
She unwound the brown veil from her head and tied it about his throat .
A shabby little traveling man , who was just then coming out of the store on his way to the saloon , stopped and gazed stupidly at the shining mass of hair she bared when she took off her veil ; two thick braids , pinned about her head in the German way , with a fringe of reddish-yellow curls blowing out from under her cap .
He took his cigar out of his mouth and held the wet end between the fingers of his woolen glove .
“ My God , girl , what a head of hair ! ” he exclaimed , quite innocently and foolishly .
She stabbed him with a glance of Amazonian fierceness and drew in her lower lip -- most unnecessary severity .
It gave the little clothing drummer such a start that he actually let his cigar fall to the sidewalk and went off weakly in the teeth of the wind to the saloon .
His hand was still unsteady when he took his glass from the bartender .
His feeble flirtatious instincts had been crushed before , but never so mercilessly .
He felt cheap and ill-used , as if some one had taken advantage of him .
When a drummer had been knocking about in little drab towns and crawling across the wintry country in dirty smoking-cars , was he to be blamed if , when he chanced upon a fine human creature , he suddenly wished himself more of a man ?
While the little drummer was drinking to recover his nerve , Alexandra hurried to the drug store as the most likely place to find Carl Linstrum .
There he was , turning over a portfolio of chromo “ studies ” which the druggist sold to the Hanover women who did china-painting .
Alexandra explained her predicament , and the boy followed her to the corner , where Emil still sat by the pole .
“ I 'll have to go up after her , Alexandra .
I think at the depot they have some spikes I can strap on my feet .
Wait a minute . ”
Carl thrust his hands into his pockets , lowered his head , and darted up the street against the north wind .
He was a tall boy of fifteen , slight and narrow-chested .
When he came back with the spikes , Alexandra asked him what he had done with his overcoat .
“ I left it in the drug store .
I could n't climb in it , anyhow .
Catch me if I fall , Emil , ” he called back as he began his ascent .
Alexandra watched him anxiously ; the cold was bitter enough on the ground .
The kitten would not budge an inch .
Carl had to go to the very top of the pole , and then had some difficulty in tearing her from her hold .
When he reached the ground , he handed the cat to her tearful little master .
“ Now go into the store with her , Emil , and get warm . ”
He opened the door for the child .
“ Wait a minute , Alexandra .
Why ca n't I drive for you as far as our place ?
It 's getting colder every minute .
Have you seen the doctor ? ”
“ Yes .
He is coming over to-morrow .
But he says father ca n't get better ; ca n't get well . ”
The girl 's lip trembled .
She looked fixedly up the bleak street as if she were gathering her strength to face something , as if she were trying with all her might to grasp a situation which , no matter how painful , must be met and dealt with somehow .
The wind flapped the skirts of her heavy coat about her .
Carl did not say anything , but she felt his sympathy .
He , too , was lonely .
He was a thin , frail boy , with brooding dark eyes , very quiet in all his movements .
There was a delicate pallor in his thin face , and his mouth was too sensitive for a boy 's .
The lips had already a little curl of bitterness and skepticism .
The two friends stood for a few moments on the windy street corner , not speaking a word , as two travelers , who have lost their way , sometimes stand and admit their perplexity in silence .
When Carl turned away he said , “ I 'll see to your team . ”
Alexandra went into the store to have her purchases packed in the egg-boxes , and to get warm before she set out on her long cold drive .
When she looked for Emil , she found him sitting on a step of the staircase that led up to the clothing and carpet department .
He was playing with a little Bohemian girl , Marie Tovesky , who was tying her handkerchief over the kitten 's head for a bonnet .
Marie was a stranger in the country , having come from Omaha with her mother to visit her uncle , Joe Tovesky .
She was a dark child , with brown curly hair , like a brunette doll 's , a coaxing little red mouth , and round , yellow-brown eyes .
Every one noticed her eyes ; the brown iris had golden glints that made them look like gold-stone , or , in softer lights , like that Colorado mineral called tiger-eye .