{"product_id":"2940012308436","title":"O PIONEERS","description":"PART I. The Wild Land\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOne January day, thirty years ago, the little town of Hanover,\u003cbr\u003eanchored on a windy Nebraska tableland, was trying not to be blown\u003cbr\u003eaway. A mist of fine snowflakes was curling and eddying about the\u003cbr\u003ecluster of low drab buildings huddled on the gray prairie, under\u003cbr\u003ea gray sky. The dwelling-houses were set about haphazard on the\u003cbr\u003etough prairie sod; some of them looked as if they had been moved in\u003cbr\u003eovernight, and others as if they were straying off by themselves,\u003cbr\u003eheaded straight for the open plain. None of them had any appearance\u003cbr\u003eof permanence, and the howling wind blew under them as well as over\u003cbr\u003ethem. The main street was a deeply rutted road, now frozen hard,\u003cbr\u003ewhich ran from the squat red railway station and the grain \"elevator\"\u003cbr\u003eat the north end of the town to the lumber yard and the horse pond\u003cbr\u003eat the south end. On either side of this road straggled two uneven\u003cbr\u003erows of wooden buildings; the general merchandise stores, the two\u003cbr\u003ebanks, the drug store, the feed store, the saloon, the post-office.\u003cbr\u003eThe board sidewalks were gray with trampled snow, but at two o'clock\u003cbr\u003ein the afternoon the shopkeepers, having come back from dinner,\u003cbr\u003ewere keeping well behind their frosty windows. The children were\u003cbr\u003eall in school, and there was nobody abroad in the streets but a\u003cbr\u003efew rough-looking countrymen in coarse overcoats, with their long\u003cbr\u003ecaps pulled down to their noses. Some of them had brought their\u003cbr\u003ewives to town, and now and then a red or a plaid shawl flashed out\u003cbr\u003eof one store into the shelter of another. At the hitch-bars along\u003cbr\u003ethe street a few heavy work-horses, harnessed to farm wagons,\u003cbr\u003eshivered under their blankets. About the station everything was\u003cbr\u003equiet, for there would not be another train in until night.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn the sidewalk in front of one of the stores sat a little Swede\u003cbr\u003eboy, crying bitterly. He was about five years old. His black cloth\u003cbr\u003ecoat was much too big for him and made him look like a little old\u003cbr\u003eman. His shrunken brown flannel dress had been washed many times\u003cbr\u003eand left a long stretch of stocking between the hem of his skirt\u003cbr\u003eand the tops of his clumsy, copper-toed shoes. His cap was pulled\u003cbr\u003edown over his ears; his nose and his chubby cheeks were chapped and\u003cbr\u003ered with cold. He cried quietly, and the few people who hurried\u003cbr\u003eby did not notice him. He was afraid to stop any one, afraid to\u003cbr\u003ego into the store and ask for help, so he sat wringing his long\u003cbr\u003esleeves and looking up a telegraph pole beside him, whimpering, \"My\u003cbr\u003ekitten, oh, my kitten! Her will fweeze!\" At the top of the pole\u003cbr\u003ecrouched a shivering gray kitten, mewing faintly and clinging\u003cbr\u003edesperately to the wood with her claws. The boy had been left\u003cbr\u003eat the store while his sister went to the doctor's office, and in\u003cbr\u003eher absence a dog had chased his kitten up the pole. The little\u003cbr\u003ecreature had never been so high before, and she was too frightened\u003cbr\u003eto move. Her master was sunk in despair. He was a little country\u003cbr\u003eboy, and this village was to him a very strange and perplexing\u003cbr\u003eplace, where people wore fine clothes and had hard hearts. He\u003cbr\u003ealways felt shy and awkward here, and wanted to hide behind things\u003cbr\u003efor fear some one might laugh at him. Just now, he was too unhappy\u003cbr\u003eto care who laughed. At last he seemed to see a ray of hope: his\u003cbr\u003esister was coming, and he got up and ran toward her in his heavy\u003cbr\u003eshoes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHis sister was a tall, strong girl, and she walked rapidly and\u003cbr\u003eresolutely, as if she knew exactly where she was going and what she\u003cbr\u003ewas going to do next. She wore a man's long ulster (not as if it\u003cbr\u003ewere an affliction, but as if it were very comfortable and belonged\u003cbr\u003eto her; carried it like a young soldier), and a round plush cap,\u003cbr\u003etied down with a thick veil. She had a serious, thoughtful face,\u003cbr\u003eand her clear, deep blue eyes were fixed intently on the distance,\u003cbr\u003ewithout seeming to see anything, as if she were in trouble. She\u003cbr\u003edid not notice the little boy until he pulled her by the coat.\u003cbr\u003eThen she stopped short and stooped down to wipe his wet face.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Why, Emil! I told you to stay in the store and not to come out.\u003cbr\u003eWhat is the matter with you?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"My kitten, sister, my kitten! A man put her out, and a dog chased\u003cbr\u003eher up there.\" His forefinger, projecting from the sleeve of his\u003cbr\u003ecoat, pointed up to the wretched little creature on the pole.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Oh, Emil! Didn't I tell you she'd get us into trouble of some\u003cbr\u003ekind, if you brought her? What made you tease me so? But there,\u003cbr\u003eI ought to have known better myself.\" She went to the foot of the\u003cbr\u003epole and held out her arms, crying, \"Kitty, kitty, kitty,\" but the\u003cbr\u003ekitten only mewed and faintly waved its tail. Alexandra turned\u003cbr\u003eaway decidedly. \"No, she won't come down. Somebody will have to\u003cbr\u003ego up after her.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47181526565104,"sku":"2940012308436","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012308436_p0.jpg?v=1763554905","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012308436","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}