Wild Heart on the Prairie (A Prairie Heritage, Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

barrier.
    Jan snorted. Karl would likely again bring up their joint
decision to go west rather than north to Wisconsin or Minnesota, states that
bordered the great lakes of America. But Jan had been adamant.
    “Do you wish to be only a dairy farmer, Karl?” Jan had
demanded. “Do you wish for an area where the land has been picked over so that we
must settle for what is left? Ja , many of our people have established
communities in Illinois and these states. That would be nice, eh? To have
others who speak our tongue and know our customs?
    “But we would have to pay for that land. I want the free land—a
parcel big enough to plant all the wheat and corn we can handle and raise cows,
goats, and our father’s hogs. I want space for our sons and their families,
too.”
    His last argument had been the most effective. Yes, their far owned land in Norway, but it was a small piece completely surrounded by land
owned by others. No matter how well they and their father managed, his ten
acres would never support Karl and Jan’s families as their children grew. And
no more land in Norway was to be had.
    Karl, as the elder son, would eventually inherit their
father’s farm. Even so, their father and mother were still strong and, God
willing, had many years ahead of them.
    If Karl stayed on his father’s farm he would have to work
for his father until he died, always doing what his father asked of him. Until his
parents died Amalie would not have her own house. Then Karl’s sons would be in
the same position—living on and working their father’s land with no prospects
of their own.
    For Jan, and for Karl, the possibility of owning their own
land now —more land than they had ever dreamed of—was too enticing, the
idea of freedom too intoxicating. Land for themselves and land for their
sons and their families? The opportunity could not be passed over.
    And, Jan knew, he was weary of being dependent on his father.
He was a grown man who did a grown man’s work every day. If he stayed in Norway,
he would always be subject to another man’s orders—first his father’s and then
his older brother’s.
    In this new country, he and Karl would be equals. No more
“little brother” and “elder brother.”
    Jan longed to put his feet under his own table each night
after working his own land each day. Elli wanted her own kitchen and wanted to
run her own home.
    Was it wrong to want these things? Jan did not believe so,
and his heart yearned for them.
    Was the free land America offered in Wisconsin or Minnesota?
No. It was west—to the Dakotas, the Nebraska Territory, or the territory of Colorado. These territories had much free land open to homesteaders.
    How Jan wished he could see a map of the available homestead
plots north and northwest of this Platte River. Jan could scarcely contain the
restive spirit within himself. His eyes burned to see his land for the
first time. His fingers itched to work the ground and tame it.
    But how many claims were already filed? What land was left?
This could only be determined once they arrived in Omaha and visited the claims
office.
    Jan had searched for and found an anchor that seemed to ease
his anxieties. It was found in a passage of the Bibelen he had read
before they left Norway. The verse had leapt from the page, as though underscored
and with the words Jan! I am speaking to you! scrawled in the margin.
    By
faith Abraham,
when he was called to go out into a place
which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed;
and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
    God was calling him to a place! Jan knew this deep in
his being. But where? What place? He had determined to trust God as Abraham had
trusted God. His trust in God’s leading kept the fears, anxieties, and
restlessness of his heart at bay.
    God and Elli  . . .
    Back home, in the nights when they should have been sleeping,
Jan and Elli had lain abed, twined together, talking . . . and dreaming.
Elli, so tall and