e, water and
a little timber, on which to build a home. Poor, bewildered, ignorant,
and odd looking, he had been an object of pity and derision all the way
from Gothenburg or Christiania to the little cabin of some country-man
of his, where he found rest and shelter until he could build one of his
own.

[Illustration: OUR FIRST HOME.]

Those who have not experienced frontier life, will naturally wonder how
it was possible for people so poor as a majority of the old settlers
were, to procure the necessaries of life, but they should remember that
our necessities were few, and our luxuries a great deal less. The
bountiful earth soon yielded bread and vegetables; the woods and streams
supplied game and fish; and as to shoes and clothing, I and many others
have used shoes made of untanned skins, and even of gunny-sacks and old
rags. Furthermore, the small merchants at the river or other points,
were always willing to supply the Scandinavian emigrants with necessary
goods on credit, until better times should come. Our people in this
country did certainly earn a name for integrity and honesty among their
American neighbors, which has been a greater help to them than money.

Some of the men would go off in search of work, and in due time return
with means enough to help the balance of the family.

Frontier settlers are always accommodating and generous. If one had more
than he needed, he would invariably share the surplus with his
neighbors. The neighbors would all turn in to help a new-comer,--haul
his logs, build his house, and do other little services, for him.

The isolated condition and mutual aims and aspirations of the settlers
brought them nearer together than in older communities. On Sunday
afternoons all would meet at some centrally located place, and spend the
day together. A cup of coffee with a couple of slices of bread and
butter, would furnish a royal entertainment, and when we got so far
along that we could afford some pie or cake for dessert, the good
house-wives were in a perfect ecstacy. The joys and sorrows of one, were
shared by the others, and nowhere in the wide world, except in a
military camp, have I witnessed so much genuine cordial friendship and
brotherhood as among the frontier settlers in the West.

One fine Sunday morning that summer, all the settlers met under two oak
trees on the prairie, near where the present church stands, for the
first religious service in the settlement. It had been a