Frank Greerson and Gregory Young have been discharged from the Army and are headed to their childhood homes. They both defied their parents in 1861 when they joined the Army. After battling southern rebels and preserving the Union of the United States of America, the two men set out to battle the Kansas Prairie and build a life together. Once they find their claim, they encounter common obstacles to life on the Kansas Prairie in 1866: Native Americans, tornadoes, wild animals, and weather.<br><br>When a prairie fire destroys their crops and takes their neighbor’s lives, Frank and Gregory are instructed to find their young son’s aunt. Faced with leaving a destroyed claim, the railroad coming through their land, and dwindling funds, Frank and Gregory must decide whether to leave the place they have worked hard to make their own or fulfill their friends' dying wishes.

A Place to Call Their Own

“Are you as nervous as I was a couple of days ago?”


“Oh, I don’t know,” Gregory answered, concentrating on the sizzling bacon in the skillet. Frank’s mother had sent it along with them. “My ma’s much different than yours. By the tone of her letters, she seems different than when Pa was alive. I guess I don’t know what to expect.”


“I don’t know what’s worse—walking into my house thinking my family would support us, or going into yours not knowing what to anticipate.”


“This is the same woman who scolded me about talking back to Pa when I was sixteen. And now, she’s been writing for the past two years that she can’t wait for me to get home to see how different the farm is.”


“Sounds like your pa dying has been good for her?” Frank asked cautiously as he pulled the shaving glass from its place in a pack.


“We’ll see,” Gregory said with a weak smile.


“Do I need to shave before we go?” Frank looked in the shaving glass.


Chapter 4