me. The first issue was distributed by homesteaders passing by and two
carriers.

Subscriptions came in rapidly at a dollar a year. Not only did most of
the settlers subscribe, but they put in subscriptions for friends and
relatives, so that these might know something of the country and its
activities. And in their rush of getting settled it was easier to have
the printer set up the news and run it off on a press than to take the
time to write a letter. Outsiders could not send in subscriptions by
mail until the newspaper had an address other than a section number of
the claim on which it was printed.

Food, shelter, fuel were still the pressing problems. An army had
peopled a land without provisions. Trade was overwhelmed and the small
towns could not get supplies shipped in fast enough. New business
enterprises were following this rush as lightning does a lightning rod.
There was bedlam. One could not get a plowshare sharpened, a bolt, or a
bushel of coal without making the long trip to town. One could not get a
pound of coffee or a box of matches on the whole reservation.

The settlers began to clamor for a store in connection with the
newspaper and the post office. Their needs ran more to coffee and sugar
and nails than to newspapers. They had to have a store for a few
essential commodities at least.

A store? I objected strenuously. We had already embarked on enough
enterprises, and running a store had no place among them. But practical
Ida was really interested in the project. It wasn't such a bad idea, she
decided. Our money was dwindling, the newspaper would not become a
paying proposition for some time, and the only revenue from the post
office was the meager cancellation of stamps.

We could hire the hauling done, she pointed out, grappling at once with
the details. And it would be a real service to the settlers. That was
what we had wanted to provide--the means didn't matter so much.

So we planked down a cash payment at a wholesale-retail store at Presho
for a bill of goods, got credit for the rest of it, threw up an ell
addition on the back of the shop for the newspaper, and stuck a grocery
store where the newspaper had been.

All this time we had been so submerged in activities connected with
getting settled, starting and operating a newspaper, a post office, and
now a store, that we had overlooked a rather important point--that on an
Indian reservation one might reasonably expect Indians. We had