homesteader, who herself wears a Phi
Beta Kappa key, "is as cosmopolitan as Ellis Island itself. One family
of three from Illinois are good neighbors and law-abiding citizens.
Another neighbor is a Mexican freighter. Another is a Norwegian whose
sole delight is to poison other people's stock and dogs and to read the
_Appeal to Reason_, which he calls 'The Apple.' Another lawless one
hails from Denmark. Would that he and his tribe had never left the
Fatherland, if they will not become Americanized! Another is a
half-witted Bosco. Another is a woman who has trodden the historic
Appian Way and journeyed to world capitols. Another is a sweet-faced
teacher who is much in demand in higher circles of learning than we have
here. So there are Italians, Scotch, French, Germans, Swedes, and many
Finlanders,--making up the good and the bad, the strong and helpful as
well as the opposite."

Sociability and a community spirit of a kind adapted to the conditions
are possible under such circumstances. And there is probably no better
field for the weekly paper, the woman's magazine and all the monthlies
than in the dug-out and the soddy. "Any pleasures? Heaps of them!" cried
one of the homesteader girls. "Visiting, horseback riding, parties,
socials, dancing, camping, hunting,--all kinds for all tastes." To be
sure, when the ranches are ten to twenty miles apart, it is difficult
for the people to get together very often. But when they do have a dance
they come from fifty miles around. They come for supper, dance all
night, and have breakfast together the next morning.

[Illustration: A Knitting Class at the Agricultural School. Note the
splendid poise of the Country Girl in the background, how naturally and
yet perfectly she is holding herself.]

To a lonely girl on her claim it is an event if another girl becomes her
next door neighbor fifteen miles away. Hence the newcomer no sooner
arrives than an eager neighbor comes to call, and the call lasts the
whole afternoon. They talk about the cabin and its fixtures, cooking
and recipes, dress and styles, the family and the crops--and the
neighbors. If the circle includes foreigners then the question of
being neighborly is more difficult. It is also a problem when one finds
one's self near a group who spend the whole time in playing bridge, for
there is nothing more certain to asphyxiate intellectual intercourse or
human exchanges of any kind. If the leader of the Four Hundred in a
one-h