Heart of the Sandhills Read Online Free Page B

when he and Jane bring the children out in the spring they will be able to help us move to our own farms. Then all of these worries with Jeb’s neighbors will be resolved.”
    “No one in Minnesota is going to give Indians free land,” Robert argued.
    “It isn’t free,” Daniel snorted. “It was our crops and our livestock that fed the soldiers and the rescued captives for weeks. Our furniture fueled their campfires.”
    Robert interrupted him. “None of that matters. They don’t care.” He gripped the sides of the wagon and stared up the road toward New Ulm. “Someone threw a rock at Nancy this morning. Called her a fat sow and a few other things I won’t repeat.” He stared at Daniel. “Thanks be to God Nancy didn’t hear the entire speech. Or at least she pretended not to hear.”
    Daniel swallowed hard and looked up at the sky, thinking. Finally, he looked back at Robert. “I am sorry, my friend.”
    Robert shook his head and sighed. “We can be grateful winter is coming on. That will help keep our women close to home without frightening them.”
    Daniel nodded his agreement. “And in the spring when Elliot arrives with news that we are moving all these worries will be over.”
    He and Robert began to unload the sacks of winter provisions from the back of the wagon. They worked in silence, pretending not to worry, all the while wondering why God did not see fit to grant them peaceful lives.

    Unaware of Robert and Nancy’s mistreatment in New Ulm and unable to read the newspaper for himself, Jeb Grant discussed Abner Marsh with his wife. Between them, they decided to keep both Abner Marsh’s hostility and Reverend Donohue’s indifference to themselves for the time being.
    “Winter’s coming on,” Marjorie said, “and things will settle down.”
    Jeb mused, “Maybe that land they been promised will come through in the spring. Maybe they won’t ever have to know.” Jeb picked up one of his twin boys. “One thing we aren’t going to do is let the bigots decide who our friends are.” He hugged his son fiercely and then set him back down. “We just got to pray harder, I guess.”
    And they did.

Three
    For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
    —Hebrews 4:12
    Jeb and Marjorie grant experienced answered prayer in a unique way. As the old-timers had predicted, winter had arrived early and was to stay long in their part of Minnesota, making traveling even the few miles into New Ulm impossible for days at a time. Temperatures plummeted, hovering at fifteen to twenty degrees below zero for days at a time. The first of many snowstorms was so severe that the Lawrences and the Two Starses could not see one another’s homes for nearly sixteen hours. Nearly thirty inches of snow remained on the ground for the entire month of December. Abner Marsh and his neighbors were so busy trying to keep their livestock—and, at times, themselves—from freezing to death, they had little time to worry and no time to talk about the four Indians living a few miles away. For the first time in their married lives, Jeb and Marjorie were sincerely thankful for terrible weather. And then, something else happened that appeared to answer their prayers for peace.

    While Gen and Nancy spent nearly every day together, they were often unable to scale the deep snowdrifts separating them from the Grants’ house only a quarter of a mile away. One morning Robert surprised the women by pulling up to Gen and Daniel’s cabin standing on a makeshift sleigh he and Daniel had made by taking Robert’s wagon off its frame and lashing the box to a crude pair of wooden runners carved from two saplings.
    “Marjorie said to come and fetch you,” Robert announced as he and Daniel stepped inside to warm up. “I think she said something about