first time since the creation of
the world. Scarcely ever had this soil felt the pressure of the foot
of a white man. For ages unnumbered it had been the feeding-ground
of the buffalo and the deer. The American savage had chased his game
over it, and possibly the sod had been wet with the blood of
contending tribes. Now all was to be changed. As the black, loamy
soil was turned for the first time to the light of day, so for the
first time the long-neglected plain was being made useful for the
support of civilized man.

No wonder the boys cheered and cheered again.

[Illustration: SANDY SEIZED A HUGE PIECE OF THE FRESHLY-TURNED SOD, AND
WAVING IT OVER HIS HEAD CRIED, "THREE CHEERS FOR THE FIRST SOD OF
BLEEDING KANSAS!"]

"We go to plant her common schools,
On distant prairie swells,
And give the Sabbaths of the wild
The music of her bells."

This is what was in Mr. Charles Bryant's mind as he wielded the
ox-goad over the backs of the animals that drew the great plough along
the first furrow cut on the farm of the emigrants. The day was bright
and fair; the sun shone down on the flower-gemmed sod; no sound broke
on the still air but the slow treading of the oxen, the chirrup of the
drivers, the ripping of the sod as it was turned in the furrow, and
the gay shouts of the light-hearted boys.

In a line of marvellous straightness, Younkins guided the leading yoke
of cattle directly toward the creek on the other side of which Charlie
yet stood, a tall, but animated landmark. When, after descending the
gradual slope on which the land lay, the trees that bordered the
stream hid the lad from view, it was decided that the furrow was long
enough to mark the westerly boundary line of the forty acres which it
was intended to break up for the first corn-field on the farm. Then
the oxen were turned, with some difficulty, at right angles with the
line just drawn, and were driven easterly until the southern boundary
of the patch was marked out. Turning, now, at right angles, and
tracing another line at the north, then again to the west to the point
of original departure, they had accurately defined the outer
boundaries of the field on which so much in the future depended; for
here was to be planted the first crop of the newcomers.

Younkins, having started the settlers in their first farming, returned
across the river to his own plough, first having sat down