With the arrival of evening, both river and shores flowed together in that impenetrable darkness of North America, the densest and thickest darkness of all the darknesses God had created. Then Robert could observe neither land nor water. But sometimes in the evenings or during the nights, flames could be seen from the invisible shores of the Mississippi. They looked like moving torches or tongues of fire; they were fires from Indian camps, glowing, flaming somewhere on land. The Indians were there — they weren’t visible, but they were there, they lurked somewhere in the forest, somewhere in the bottomless darkness — the most horrible people the old Mississippi captain had ever seen.
And Robert watched these fires with deep apprehension; they indicated to him the presence of the cruel redskins; they were all around him here, they were close. And this very country was to be his home, in the midst of these heathens he would have to live, among Indians he would pass the rest of his life.
He felt a great fear, and a still greater foreboding.
— 4—
On the last day of July, 1850, the immigrants from Ljuder stepped ashore in the town of Stillwater, on the St. Croix River, a tributary of the Mississippi, in Washington County, Territory of Minnesota.
They arrived at a time of year most inconvenient for farmers: the summer was by now so far advanced that it was too late to sow or plant anything. They were peasants who had lost a year’s crops, and they knew what this meant.
Part Two. The Settling
XI. “WILL NO ONE HELP ME?”
— 1—
The place smelled of the forest products and forest debris — green, lately milled lumber, pitch, sawdust, boards at seasoning. Along the river ran a fairly broad street covered with pine needles, bark, sawdust, sand — truly a lumber-town street. The riverbank was piled high with boards and logs for blocks, and on the river floated logs in such numbers that the surface seemed one vast, cobbled floor. Both earth and water smelled of pitch and pine. The travelers had arrived in a forest region.
Karl Oskar and Robert wandered up the street, to where the newly built houses clustered; they walked leisurely, trying to read the shop signs and other inscriptions: Oxen for Sale Cheap for Cash; William Simpson, Druggist; Shoemaker and Watch Repairing; The House That Jack Built. They passed a number of stores where tools and implements of many kinds were displayed in the windows. The largest inscription was painted on the side of a house: Stillwater Lumber Company. They had seen the same sign near the pier as they landed.
It had been late afternoon when they disembarked from the Red Wing; they must find lodging before nightfall. For two weeks Robert had practiced this one important sentence from his language book: Please show me to a lodging house. He was now completely familiar with every part of this sentence, even though he had not as yet used it. But now two more important and urgent questions confronted the immigrants: How were they to manage with all their belongings? How would they find their way to their place of destination?
Captain Berger had informed them a few days earlier that the Red Wing would be unable to carry them all the way up river to Taylors Falls. The Mississippi steamers turned back at Stillwater as the St. Croix was not navigable beyond this point for larger craft; the current was too strong and there were several rapids. Consequently, he was forced to land them some distance short of their destination. At the same time Captain Berger had warned them not to remain in this region, which was ravaged by cholera; he had pointed out many places along the river where houses and huts stood empty. Immigrants from his homeland had built them but had already been forced to move — not away from the district, but six feet down into it, to final decay. The survivors in these Norwegian settlements were impoverished, almost starved to death, existing in utmost misery. It was so bad, Captain Berger wasn’t sure which immigrants were better off, those in the ground or those above it.
Such information was not encouraging to the newcomers, and they had felt downhearted and filled with concern as they left the steamer. Captain Berger had promised to ask someone to help them find their way after landing, but he had fallen ill that morning, and when they landed, he lay in high fever in his cabin; they had not seen him again. And as the Red Wing departed they were left alone on the pier, completely dependent upon themselves in this unknown place. There they sat down among their chests, sacks, bundles, and baskets, without knowing in which direction to go, or how to transport their possessions.
While the rest of the group remained at the pier to watch over their belongings, Karl Oskar and Robert went to seek information. Besides the question concerning lodgings, Robert had learned two sentences from the chapter entitled “The Journey”: Respected Sir, how can we reach Taylors Falls? Who will take care of our baggage? The name Taylors Falls he had added himself, but he did not know how to pronounce it. He meant to put these questions to someone in the street who looked kind and helpful and seemed to have plenty of time; he was particularly on the lookout for older persons.
But they met only young people on the street of this new lumber town. And all were in a great hurry, passing them by quickly. Robert hoped to address someone who was walking slowly. But they met no limping old men or women. Few women were in sight on the street. Three times, Robert spoke to older men; each one stopped, shook his head at the questions, and muttered some incomprehensible answer. He spoke to a couple of middle-aged women sitting on the steps in front of a house, but they, too, shook their heads.
Karl Oskar was growing impatient: “I don’t think they understand you!”
Robert had asserted that by now his English was so good he could lend his mouth for the use of all, and Karl Oskar was reminded again that he could not always rely on his brother.
Robert had followed the instructions in his book: Practice the Speech Exercises! Become familiar with the words and phrases most frequently used! He replied to Karl Oskar: The Americans undoubtedly understood what he said. But they spoke their own language so rapidly that he couldn’t understand their answers.
He tried his questions on a few more passers-by but without success, and then Karl Oskar said they had better go back to the pier.
Their fellow travelers were still sitting among their possessions, all together, but helpless and at a loss as to what to do next.
Jonas Petter said it looked as though the inhabitants might be afraid of them; they had been left entirely alone on the pier; did people think a gang of robbers had arrived on the steamer?
Fina-Kajsa sat with her skirt tucked up, her broken iron pot on her knees. She sighed: “Oh me, oh my! We’ll never get there! Oh me, oh my!”
All were hungry, and someone suggested opening the food baskets. But Karl Oskar said it would soon be dark, they must find quarters before they did anything else; they couldn’t remain on the pier all night.
Ulrika spoke up: “That was supposed to be your job, as I recall.”
“You go and try!” Karl Oskar retorted tartly.
He was in low spirits and this affected the others. Even the Glad One, who usually encountered trouble with indifference, was now upset and irritable, and as it suddenly began to rain, she poured forth bad language on this new misfortune.
It was a cloudburst — apparently, all rains in America were cloudbursts. It splashed and thundered over the river, the heavy rain soaked the immigrants’ clothing, it struck like knives, penetrating to their very marrow. After a few minutes they were all as wet as if they had been dipped in the river. The children yelled and refused to be comforted.