of their claims.
Droves of them landed at Presho early, reawakening the town and the
plains with a new invasion. Thousands who had not won a claim followed
in their wake, and everyone, when he had crossed the Missouri River,
heard about the Brule.

The government sent out notice for the appointment of a regular mail
carrier for the Ammons post office. Dave Dykstra had resigned to farm
his land, and Sam Frye, a young homesteader with a family, was
appointed.

We began to need more printing equipment to carry on the increased
newspaper business and to take care of the flood of proofs which would
come in that summer; there was interest and a payment on the press
coming due. So there was a day when Ida Mary said we were going to go
under, unless we could do some high financing within thirty days.

"Oh, we'll get through somehow," I assured her. "It's like a poker game;
you never know what kind of hand you will hold in the next deal."
Planning ahead didn't help much, because something unexpected usually
happened.

But no matter what hard luck a homesteader had or how much he had paid
the government, unless he could meet the payments and all other
requirements fully he lost the land and all he had put into it. We could
not afford to lose our claim, so I concentrated on my Land Office
business.

As usual, something happened. I was sitting in the private office of the
United States Land Commissioner in Presho when a man walked into the
front office and put a contest on a piece of land. I heard the numbers
repeated through the thin partition and I knew exactly where the land
lay; it was a quarter-section south of us on the reservation, which
belonged to a young man who had to abandon it because he was ill and
penniless. He had got a leave of absence which had run out, and he had
no funds to carry on and prove up the claim. Yet he had put into the
gamble several hundred dollars and spent almost a year's time on it.
Now he was to lose it to the man who had contested it.

Nothing could be done to save the land for the man who had gone home; he
had forfeited it. I started from my chair. The contest must be filed in
Pierre. If I could get one in first, I could help out the man whose
illness had deprived him of his land, and help out the ailing Ammons
finances. But it would be a race!

Through the outer office I rushed while the land agent called after me,
"Just a minute, Edith!"

"I'll be back," I told him breathlessly. "