Blossoms on the Roof (7 page)

“If there isn't room for everyone, we'll just go back home again,” Lizzie Miller said cheerfully. She was only a little older than Polly. Then there was Mary, who was a year younger than Polly. By the time they went back to their own seats, Polly was hoping the Miller girls would go to her school too.

In the afternoon the train came to the Red River. “This is the boundary between Minnesota and North Dakota,” Father announced. There was excitement in his voice. “Look at the river, Ben. Do you notice something unusual about the water?”

Ben peered down through the trestles of the bridge. “Why, this river flows northward!”

“Yes. It goes right up to Canada into Hudson Bay.”

“Right up to the Eskimos,” Ben said in awe.

The train rolled through the town of Fargo and on into the country. Samuel Miller came walking down the aisle and told Father, “Last fall when we were here, we saw thousands of acres of wheat. The Red River valley has some of the most fertile soil in the States!”

Ben asked immediately, “Will our farm be in the Red River valley?”

“No, we are settling farther west,” Father replied.

“The soil out in Rolette County, where we are going, is not quite so deep and rich, but it is still good wheat country,” Samuel assured them.

Every now and then the train passed through a small town. People stood near the rails, waving and cheering.

“They know this is an immigrant train and are happy to see more settlers coming,” Father said.

“Why?” asked Polly.

“Maybe they are a bit lonely,” Mother told her. “North Dakota is a big, empty land.”

“Oh,” said Polly soberly. Mother's comment made Polly feel a little lonely too.

“Pretty soon this place won't be empty anymore,” Ben declared. “North Dakota, here we come!”

9

Home at Last

F
ar away on the horizon of that big, empty land, the sun was starting to go down, and the train slowed. From across the aisle, Kettie asked excitedly, “Do you see that town? That's where we get off. Father says our farm is only six miles from here.”

“Is this our town too, Father?” Polly asked her own father.

“No. Remember, we are going to a town called Rolla.”

Polly looked sadly across the aisle at Kettie and Mattie. They had heard Father's reply. They were sad too.

When the train stopped, Kettie and Mattie helped their parents gather up their baggage. “Goodbye,” they said to Polly. “Surely we'll see you again soon.”

“Goodbye,” Polly replied. She felt like crying as she thought,
North Dakota is so big. What if we never see each other again?

Ben watched the passengers pouring off of the train. “Will all those people sleep in this little town tonight?”

“No. Some of the passenger cars will be unhooked here. Of course, the freight cars with their belongings will stay here too,” Father answered.

As they left town, the train seemed to move faster than before. Maybe it was because so many cars had been left behind.

It was dark when the train stopped again. “Here we are,” Father said softly. “This is Rolla. Tomorrow, as soon as the sun is up, we will load the wagon and drive to our new home.”

“I don't know if I can sleep tonight. I'm too excited,” Ben said as he followed Father out to care for the livestock.

Polly climbed up into her berth. She could not sleep right away. Maybe it was because the train stood still. Tonight she would not be rocked to sleep.

Then suddenly it was morning, and she heard Mother say, “Polly, wake up. We are going home this morning, remember?”

Home
, Polly thought.
Where is home? Back in Indiana on the farm that belongs to Paddy Lang? No, home is here in North Dakota, somewhere out there on the prairie.
Polly climbed down quickly.

Mother told her, “Father and Ben are hitching up the team to the wagon they loaded early this morning. We will eat breakfast on the way.” She picked up a sleepy Lisbet, and Polly took Jakie's hand.

“Goodbye, train,” Polly whispered as she stepped out of the passenger car. For more than two days, this had been her home on wheels. Now it was time to find her home on the prairie.

There were Jasper and Rob, already hitched up and jiggling around as if they could hardly wait to get going. The wagon was piled high. “Is there room for us too?” Mother asked with a smile.

Father swung Lisbet and Jakie up and onto the seat. “Mother, you may sit on the seat. Ben and Polly, you can find room in the back.”

Polly squeezed in beside one of the packing boxes. Ben sat on top of the box. Father looked back to make sure everyone was ready. Then he lifted the reins, and they were off.

Minutes later they turned off the street, and the wagon rolled along in high, waving grass.
Swish, swish, swish
went the wheels in the grass. Polly peered down to see that the road was nothing more than a muddy track in the grass.

“I wonder how Father can find the road,” said Ben from his perch on the box. “I can hardly see it.”

At first the horses trotted, but after a while they slowed to a walk. The grass swished against their legs as they plodded along.

“Nothing to be seen but grass,” reported Ben from his lookout. “Acres and acres of grass.”

“Like an ocean,” Polly said with a laugh. “We are on an ocean again—an ocean of grass.”

The sun rose higher in the sky. “I see a house and barn!” called Ben.

Polly stretched her neck. “Where? I don't see a house.”

“There. Those humps. The buildings look like grass because they're
made
of grass.”

“That's a house?” Polly rubbed her eyes as if she had been dreaming. “Will our house look like that too?”

“That's what sod houses look like,” Father told her. “They are really quite comfortable. They don't look very high, but inside they are dug down. As soon as we get to our place, we will start building our house.”

“Oh,” said Polly. She watched the small, low, sod house until it disappeared from view in the waving grass. Soon they passed another sod house and then another.

“How will you know which is our farm?” Ben called to Father.

“I will check the number on the stake. Have you noticed the stakes that are driven into the ground? They mark the corners of the hundred-and-sixty-acre plots,”

At last the horses stopped. Father got down and checked the stake. “This is it!” he declared. “This is our farm.”

Polly looked around. All she saw was grass…and more grass.

Ben stood up on the box. “I see some trees. I think there's a creek back there.”

“Then we will build our house near the water,” Father replied. “Giddyap, Jasper and Rob. Just a little bit farther.”

When they stopped near the trees, Ben was off the wagon in an instant. Polly followed him down to the creek. Patches of gray snow still clung to the north bank. The water looked icy cold.

Cupping his hands, Ben drank some. “Mmm. Fresh water! The water we had on the train wasn't very good.”

After drinking some water too, Polly climbed back up the bank to see what Father and Mother were doing. Already Father was hitching Jasper and Rob to the plow. In town he had bought an attachment meant especially for cutting sod strips.

“Now watch us make bricks out of this sod,” Father said to Mother.

The horses strained forward, and the plow bit into the grass. Slowly a strip rolled away from the plow. Ben used a knife to cut the strips into three-foot pieces.

After a while Father had cleared a patch of grass to reveal the bare soil, and the horses rested while Father and Ben started to build the house. They began by piling sod strips like bricks around the bare patch.

“Will the house be finished by tonight?” asked Polly.

“No.” Father grunted as he lifted one of the big sod bricks. “It will take us some days.”

Even Mother helped lift and carry the bricks, but soon it was time to get dinner so Mother went to the wagon to get some firewood. They had brought the firewood from Indiana because Father had said there were no big trees on their farm. They would have to fetch their wood from far away in the Turtle Mountains.

Mother opened the cookstove lid and put in the wood. Polly laughed and said, “Will you use the cookstove out here in the field?”

“Yes,” answered Mother with a smile.

Building a sod house was hard work.

Polly helped peel potatoes for dinner. “My hands are cold,” she said while holding her hands over the cookstove.

The spring wind was chilly, making the whole family
huddle near the stove to eat their hot potato soup. Father declared, “It's a real treat to have soup after two days on the train.”

After dinner Father and Ben cut more bricks. Mother put Lisbet and Jakie to sleep on the south side of the wagon where the sun helped to keep them warm. Polly felt sleepy too and soon lay down beside Lisbet.

When she awoke, she heard Father saying to Mother, “We should start off soon if we want to go to town for the night.”

“Couldn't we sleep here?” Mother suggested. “Some of us could sleep in the wagon, and the new house wall would be a shelter for the rest of us.”