American Girl (Wisconsin)

The cabin sat deep in the woods. There was a little clearing around it and a vegetable garden. Visitors rarely made their way to the small cabin besides rabbit and deer. Town was five miles away. Pa walked there when he had furs to trade. Occasionally, he hitched the horses to the wagon, and they went to town for the day. Ma could purchase fabric to make dresses and curtains. Sometimes, she would buy white sugar. She would bake a cake and make silky white frosting when she did. Otherwise, they used brown sugar made from molasses.

Lena and Darla Scott went to school each day. The one-room schoolhouse stood at the crossroads. About a dozen children attended. Darla, the eldest, sat at a desk near the back of the room. She was friends with the bigger girls. Lena's desk was in the middle row. She shared it with Yvonne Cox. They were best friends.

The schoolmistress sat at the huge desk up front. She kept her back as straight as a rail and her hands folded in front of her. The arithmetic assignments were written on the chalkboard behind her by class. Lena stuck her pencil in the corner of her mouth and studied the board. She didn't see the point in learning arithmetic. History and English captured her attention.

After a while, Lena began kicking at her chair's leg. Her thick brogans made a clunk, clunk sound. Yvonne nudged her and began clunking her boots too. The girls picked up a rhythm and began swaying slightly. Lena tapped her pencil against the desktop. Yvonne beat her palm on the smooth surface.

Miss Dill rapped her ruler on the big desk's edge. The girls ignored her. The new sound blended into the music session. Other than their noise, the schoolroom became eerily silent. Lena bent her head, and her braids flapped around her ears. She grinned at Yvonne.

"Girls!" Miss Dill shouted, grabbing Lena's pencil. The teacher broke it in half and returned it to the startled girl. "You will both remain after school and write 'I will not interrupt my class' one hundred times."

"Aw, Miss Dill," Lena complained loudly. Yvonne shrunk down in her seat.

The teacher made them clean the blackboard before they started writing. It was laborious and repetitive work. By the time she finished, Lena's hand was cramped and covered with white chalk powder. She burst out of the schoolhouse with Yvonne. Darla stood in the path with her hands on her hips.

"Satisfied?" Darla asked.

Lena shrugged. She knew Darla would wait for her. Pa had warned them against walking alone in the woods at dusk. As they walked homeward, the setting sun sparkled through the Wisconsin woods. It looked like a kaleidoscope. She couldn't help gaping at it in wonder. Yvonne walked beside her, their shoes crunching in fallen leaves.

Lena stopped and listened. Beside the path, another set of footsteps shadowed them. She noticed a form moving among the trees. Wild animals lived in the woods like bears and cougars. Gnawing her lower lips, Lena ran to catch up with Darla and Yvonne.

"Darla," Lena said nervously, "there's something following us. It's in the woods."

"You should have thought about that before your concert," Darla remarked, widening her stride.

Lena frowned and lowered her head. She hadn't meant to disrupt the class. Yvonne grasped her hand and squeezed it. She appeared nervous also.

The Cox family lived a mile further into the woods from the Scott house. Darla and Lena would soon turn into their dooryard, but Yvonne had to walk on from there alone. Lena noticed the concerned look on her friend's face.

"If Pa's home, he'll walk you to your house," Lena suggested hopefully.

"Pa might not come home," Darla snapped.

Lena threw Darla a scathing look. Sometimes, she disliked Darla because she was pert and a know-it-all. She often contradicted everything Lena said or brought a negative connotation to her remarks.

"Pa's home," Lena said confidently.

Mike Scott worked as a lumberjack. In the morning, he walked into the deep woods with his axe on his shoulder. He cut down trees and helped float them in Lake Michigan. Once, Pa took Darla and Lena to a lumberjack camp. He showed them how they cut trees and the long chute they used to send the logs tumbling into the lake. A barge towed them to Chicago, where they were cut into lumber and shipped to the West.

"What if Pa's staying in camp?" Darla asked.

Lena stopped in the path. She hadn't thought of that. Pa often remained in camp if there was a big job to do. He might not come home for days.

"Yvonne can stay with us." Lena walked on smugly, believing in her decision.

"And let Mrs. Cox worry about Yvonne overnight?" Darla burst Lena's bubble.

"Oh." Lena clamped her mouth shut. "I'll walk her."

"You will not." Darla clipped her words.

"Well…I…" Lena opened and closed her mouth several times like a fish.

"You'll think twice next time you want to disrupt class."

Darla retook the lead, and Lena poked her tongue at her sister's back.

By the time they reached the little cabin, Darla was already inside talking to Ma. Lena remained outside. The girls leaned against the rail fence surrounding the property. The woods loomed large around them. Lena began to feel a presence again. She stared amongst the trees, looking for a cougar or bear. A branch snapped, and she jumped. Yvonne grabbed her around the shoulders, and they hugged.

"What is it?" Yvonne asked, terrified.

"Bear or cougar," Lena suggested, pulling away. She leaned over the fence and yelled, "GO AWAY! GET OUTTA HERE. SHOO-SHOO!"

"Let's go inside." Yvonne tugged her hand.

"Yeah…okay." Lena cast a long look behind her, then walked toward the house.

"BOO!" A red-headed boy leaped into their path.

"Who are you?" Lena asked, spinning to confront him.

"Leroy Mills," the newcomer stated. "Who are you?"

"Lena Scott, and this is Yvonne Cox," she introduced, eyeing the boy suspiciously. "Where did you come from?"

"Over there." Leroy pointed vaguely into the woods behind them.

"Over there where?" Lena asked, scanning the tree line.

"Yonder." Leroy pointed again.

"I don't see no yonder." Lena walked away, dismissing the boy.

"My Pa's building a cabin just over there," Leroy persisted, following the girls. "We just got here from Milwaukee. Pa's tired of city living. He's the new logging foreman."

Lena swallowed hard. Her Pa complained about the new cabins springing up in the Wisconsin woods. The newcomers were creeping in closer and closer upon their solitude. At night, while Lena and Darla curled up in bed, they listened to Ma and Pa talk. Pa wanted to go West. He said land was opening up all over the West, in Kansas, Dakota, and Oregon. He talked mainly of Oregon.

"I can put a canvas cover on the wagon and get a couple of Mustangs to pull it. It'll get us to Oregon in six, maybe eight months," Pa stated.

"I don't know, George," Ma worried. "I don't like the idea of dragging the girls across the prairies and mountains. What about Indians?"

"Indians won't bother us. The government is putting them on Reservations. That's why the land is opening up," Pa assured her. "It might get rough camping out, but it's safe enough."

"I still don't know," Ma sighed.

"We can't go until spring anyway. Winter is too close at hand to leave now. We'll go just before the thaw to get across the Mississippi on hard ice." In the darkness, Pa mapped out their planned immigration. He would settle for Dakota for a start. After a few years, they could move further west.

Lena waited for him to continue speaking in the darkness. She was drifting off when he spoke again.

"This place is getting too crowded. New cabins are springing up, and the Big Woods are thinning out with all the logging. We'll have neighbors across the road before you know it, Kathy."

"I wouldn't mind having neighbors, George." Ma's voice was small. Lena had trouble making out her words.

"I would." The covers rustled, and Lena heard her Pa settle in to sleep.

Remembering her Pa's words, Lena viewed Leroy suspiciously. She wasn't sure if she would like neighbors either. She loved the closeness of the Big Woods and the little school at the crossroads. She tried to imagine a bigger school, lots of kids, maybe a new village. Furiously, she scrubbed her mind clean.

Yvonne had once said her Pa wanted to move West also. Mr. Cox talked about Dakota and Oregon, too. Or maybe Kansas. Perhaps they would travel together by covered wagon. Lena didn't want to lose her friend, but she also liked the solitude of their woodland home. Too many people living nearby would ruin it.

Ma and Darla came out of the house. Ma went to hitch the horses to the wagon. Darla joined Lena and Yvonne. She looked at Leroy questioningly.

"That's Leroy Mills. His Pa's building a cabin yonder." Lena pointed vaguely into the woods.

"Oh." Darla's brows furrowed.

Ma pulled up in the wagon, and the girls clambered aboard. They were going to take Yvonne home. As the wagon rolled along the road, she asked about the new boy. Lena explained who he was.

"Are we going to move to Dakota, Ma?" Lena asked, peering at Leroy as they moved past him.

"Yes, Lena, we are," Ma replied, also glancing at Leroy. "In the spring, before the thaw."

"Are the Coxes going with us?"

"Yes, probably."

Ma urged the horses onward. The sun was disappearing, and soon darkness would fall in the Big Woods. They had to hurry to take Yvonna home and get back themselves. Bears and cougars roamed the woods at night. Lena wondered if the wild animals would move West too, when the woods became too crowded with people.