earning was a truant for the younger generation on
the prairies at that time, there being only a few private schools
scattered here and there. Though it was not much of an opportunity for
anything but something to do, the offer was accepted, and every
morning, after sucking a couple of eggs for a breakfast, E. A.
Partridge took to loping across the prairie on a "Shag" pony.

But the little school put an idea into his head. He wondered if it
might be worth while starting a private school of his own, and in 1885
he thought the Broadview locality offered profitable prospects. He
decided to go down there and look over the situation.

By this time the occupants of the sod house numbered four--three
Partridge brothers and a friend. The problem of fitting out the
school-teacher for his Broadview trip so that he would create the
necessary impression among strangers was one which called for
corrugated brows. The solution of it was not to be found in any of the
teacher's few text-books; it quite upset Euclid's idea that things
which were equal to the same thing were equal to one another--when it
came to finding enough parts to make a respectable whole! For among
the four bachelors was not one whole suit of clothes sufficiently
presentable for social events. Everything was rough and ready in those
days and in spite of the hardships the friendly pioneer settlers had
some good times together; but the sod house quartette had never been
seen at any of these gatherings--not all four at one time! Three of
them were always so busy with this or that work that they had to stay
home, you know; it would have been embarrassing to admit that it was
only by pooling their clothes they could take turns in exhibiting a
neighborly spirit. As it was, there was often a secret fear of
exhibiting even more--an anxiety which led the visitor to keep the wall
at his back like a man expecting general excitement to break loose at
any moment!

On reaching Broadview the prospects for the new school looked bright,
so the hopeful pedagogue sent back word to the sod house to this effect.

"And don't you fellows forget to send my linen," he wrote jokingly.
"Make the trunk heavy, too. I don't know how long it will have to
represent my credit!"

When the trunk arrived it was so heavy that it took two men to carry it
into the hotel. When in the secrecy of his own room E. A. Partridge
ventured to look inside he found his few books, a pair of "jumper"