ary had
settled the doubts of the homesteaders who feared that a slight young
city girl could not handle a frontier school. She was a good teacher.
She had a way of discipline with the half-grown plains boys who were
larger and stronger than she, and who, but for her serene firmness,
would have refused to accept her authority. Instead, they arrived early
to build the fire for her in the mornings, carried the heavy pails of
drinking water, and responded eagerly to her teaching. By means of the
school, she began to create a new community interest.

Another and perhaps the biggest factor in the community life of that
section was the Randall settlement at McClure. The Randalls threw up a
crude shell of a building for a community hall and now and then gave a
party or a dance for the homesteaders. Typical of the complete democracy
of the plains, everyone was invited, and everyone, young and old, came.
The parents put their children to bed in the lodge quarters of the
Halfway House while they joined in the festivity. The older ones
square-danced in the middle of the hall and we younger ones waltzed and
polkaed in a long line down the outside ring.

It was not always easy to get music for both round and square dances at
the same time, but Old Joe, a fiddler ever since the--Custer's battle,
was it?--would strike one bar in waltz time and the next in rhythm to
the "allemande left" of the square dances, and we got along beautifully.
Some of the homesteaders helped out with guitars; a few cowboys, riding
in from remote ranches, played accompaniments on jew's-harps; other cow
punchers contributed to the music as they danced with clicking of spurs
and clatter of high-heeled boots. And always the Randalls had a big
kettle of coffee to serve with the box lunches the guests provided for
themselves.

At Christmas Ida Mary and I were invited by the Millers for a house
party. It was the first well-established home we had seen since we
reached South Dakota. A small farm house, plainly furnished, but it had
been a home for a long time.

The Millers were counted a little above the average westerner in their
method of living. Stockmen on a small scale, they ran several hundred
head of cattle. Mrs. Miller was a dignified, reserved woman who
maintained shiny order in her house. "She even scalds her dishes," folks
said, which by the water-hauling populace was considered unpardonable
aristocracy. Imbert was the pride and mainstay of his parent