O Pioneers! tells the story of the Bergsons, a Swedish family of farmers who settled in Nebraska.

“We must have faith in the high land, Emil. I want to hold on harder than ever, and when you're a man you'll thank me.” [...]

When the road began to climb the first swells¹ of the Divide, Alexandra hummed an old Swedish hymn, and Emil wondered why his sister looked so happy. Her face was so radiant that he felt shy about asking her. For the first time, perhaps, since that land emerged from the waters of geologic ages, a human face was set toward² it with love and yearning³. It seemed beautiful to her, rich and strong, and glorious. Her eyes drank in the breadth⁴ of it, until her tears blinded her. Then the Genius of the Divide, the great, free spirit which breathes across it, must have bent lower than it ever bent to a human will before. The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman.

Alexandra reached home in the afternoon. That evening she held a family council and told her brothers all that she had seen and heard.

“I want you boys to go down yourselves and look it over. Nothing will convince you like seeing with your own eyes. The river land was settled before this, and so they are a few years ahead of us, and have learned more about farming. The land sells for three times as much as this, but five years it will double it. The rich men down there own all the best land, and they are buying all they can get. The thing to do is to sell our cattle and what little old corn we have, and buy the Linstrum place. Then the next thing to do is to take out two loans⁵ on our half-sections, and buy Peter Crow's place; raise every dollar we can, and buy every acre we can.”

“Mortgage the homestead again?” Lou cried. He sprang up and began to wind the clock furiously. “I won't slave to pay off another mortgage. I'll never do it. You'd just as soon kill us all, Alexandra, to carry out some scheme!”

Oscar rubbed his high, pale forehead. “How do you propose to pay off your mortgage⁵ ?” Alexandra looked from one to the other and bit her lip. They had never seen her so nervous. [...] “The chance that father was always looking for has come.” Lou was pacing the floor. “But how do you know that land is going to go up enough to pay the mortgages and—” “And make us rich besides?” Alexandra put in firmly. “I can't explain that, Lou. You'll have to take my word for it. I know, that's all. When you drive about over the country you feel it coming.”