“Why don’t you go to the West?” said an acquaintance, to whom he was one day making complaint of his slow progress.  “That is the country where enterprise meets a just reward.  If I were as young a man as you are, you wouldn’t catch me long in these parts.  I would sell out and buy five or six hundred acres of government land and settle down as a farmer.  In a few years you’d see me with property on my hands worth looking at.”

This set Parker to thinking and inquiring about the West.  The idea of becoming a substantial farmer, with broad acres covered with grain and fields alive with stock, soon became predominant in his mind, and he talked of little else at home or abroad.  His wife said nothing, but she thought almost as much on the subject as did her husband.  At length Benjamin Parker determined that he would remove to Northern Indiana, more than a thousand miles away, upon a farm of five hundred acres, that was offered to him at two dollars and a half an acre.  It was government land that had been taken up a year or two before, and slightly improved by the erection of a log hut and the clearing of a few acres, and now sold at one hundred per cent. advance.  Instead of first visiting the West and seeing the location of the land that was offered to him, Parker was willing to believe all that was said of its excellence and admirable location, and weak enough to invest in it more than half of all he was worth.

The store at Fairview was sold out, and Mrs. Parker permitted to spend a week with her sisters before parting with them, perhaps, forever.  When the final moment of separation came it seemed to her like a death-parting.  The eyes of Rachel lingered upon each loved countenance, as if for the last time, and when these passed from before her bodily visions, love kept them as distinct as ever, but distinct in their tearful sadness.

If the wishes and feelings of Rachel Parker had been consulted—­if she had been at all considered and her true feelings and character justly appreciated—­a removal to the West would never have been determined upon.  But her husband’s mind was all absorbed in ideas of worldly things.  Not possessing the habits and qualities of mind that ensure success in any calling, he was always oppressed with the consciousness that he was either standing still, or going behind-hand.  Instead of seeking to better his condition by greater activity, energy, and concentration of thought upon his business, he was ever looking to something beyond it, and to change of place and pursuit as the means of improving his fortunes.  This at last, as has been seen, led him off to the West in the ardent hope of becoming in time a wealthy farmer.  In an inverse ratio to the hopeful elevation of spirits with which Parker set out upon his journey was the sorrowful depression experienced by his wife.  But Rachel kept meekly and patiently her feelings to herself.  It was her duty, she felt, to go with her husband.  She had united her fortunes with his, and without murmuring or complaining, she was ready to go with him through the world and to stand bravely up by his side in any and all circumstances.