Wichita, Sedgwick County, Kansas - February 1874
The man looked around and down both ends of the street, and ARJ instinctively shrunk back from the window. He stayed frozen until the man mounted his horse and rode away.
ARJ felt his heart beating fast and put his hand to his chest to slow it down.
‘Dad said everything will be alright. I have even said my prayers about it every night since.’ He thought to himself as he twisted away from the window.
Something on the wall behind him caught his eye. He turned to see it better. The object was round and engraved, and immediately, ARJ knew what it had to be. It was the seal of Kansas Dad had told him about. He found the plowing farmer, and the steamboat, the sunrise, buffalo being hunted by Indians, and the rows of stars above it. Then he spotted the strange words written above the scene.
AD ASTRA PER ASPERA
ARJ remembered exactly what Dad said the words meant because he had repeated them in his mind at least once a day since then.
‘To the stars through difficulties’ He said to himself. The Kansas Motto; his new motto.
ARJ wondered to himself,
‘Why couldn’t we have found a place to live that didn’t have difficulties?’
He didn’t have the answer to that question. Perhaps there were no places like that. Home wasn’t like that either. There were many difficulties on the Isle of Wight but the difference there was that he didn’t feel so alone. They had Grandpa and Grandma Dibbens, Grandma Jarman and Aunt Emily on the island; there was Uncle William, and Uncle Albert, all of their cousins… There, they never felt alone in their difficulties.
“Boys,”
ARJ’s thoughts were suddenly interrupted by Mum’s voice.
“We’re ready to go. How about we stop at the grocery story before we go home?”
The boys slid off the chairs and followed Mum outside. “Goodbye, boys!” Mr. Brewer’s voice boomed from behind. They turned and waved goodbye as they walked through the door.
The grocery was on the right, at the end of the walk.
“No need to ride.” Dad said, “I’ll walk you down and come back and move the wagon closer to the store.”
ARJ and JW ran ahead. When they reached the store, ARJ stopped and pulled on JW’s sleeve.
“Did you hear that?” He asked.
A soft whine came from around the corner. They back-stepped until they could see the side of the building to investigate. In the narrow alleyway between the buildings, a dog scratched on a side entry of the store. It seemed to be white, but with hundreds of big and little brown and black spots, big black spots circled its eyes and covered its floppy ears. It whined again and scratched at the door.
“Do you think it lives at the store?” JW asked.
“Possibly. It might be hungry.”
Mum and Dad caught up with them and scooted them on through the heavy door of the shop.
The
store was filled with wonderful things and the boys looked around as Mum talked
to the storekeeper who stood behind a glass case. “Three pounds of buckwheat
flour and …” The boys peered
into crates and barrels, wandering around as they
heard Mum start her order. They finally found the case they were looking for; a
case filled with toys.
“Do you see the soldier in the back?”
“I like that drum!”
“Look at this book here in front!”
JW knelt so he could see the ink drawing on the book’s cover a little better. “Look at all the cows!” he exclaimed! “And the men riding the horses!” ARJ studied the picture for a minute. It looked as if the artist had drawn a thousand cows. Three cowboys were herding the cattle. Under the picture, the caption said, ‘Cattle Drive to Wichita!’ in neat print.
“They come to Wichita?” ARJ exclaimed, mostly to himself.
JW looked up and said, “If they come to Wichita, I want to see them!”
“I don’t know where they’d put all those cows." ARJ told his brother. "We didn’t have that many cows on the whole island!”
The boys looked up at the sound of scratching on the door behind the display case. The store clerk walked over to the door and looked out.
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