undred-mile-square community cannot read or write but plays cards
like a gambler, it is impossible to entertain a hope that true community
spirit will flourish there and good works will be furthered. But the
Country Girl who finds herself in such a place as that may reflect that
perhaps her very reason for being is to provide from her abundant
resources some offset of joy and entertainment and good will that will
plant good community spirit and unharmful pleasure where evil things had
sway.

Both the gay bravura and the sound judgment of the American college girl
are shown in this picturing bit from Mabel Stewart Lewis, a successful
homesteader of South Dakota. "It is such fun to go visiting the other
girls, to taste their goodies, to sleep four in a bed, toast
marshmallows, and make fudge. But these things are mere trivialities.
The great and glorious fact of _being_ it and _doing_ it is the
pleasure! What could be more delightful than owning one's own land,
having one's own house, digging in one's own soil, and being one's own
and only boss?

"Looking down deeper than the surface and out beyond my quarter section,
I see that our life here is another part of the great feminist movement
of the world, a real and very vital part for the young women who are
fortunate enough to be classed among the homesteaders. And fortunate
not only are they, but the country, a part of which they are building."

Pioneering life is a passing phase; the girl homesteader is exceptional.
But transitory periods may teach great lessons as they glide along
before the glass of history. And if the girls that brave the danger,
endure the solitude, become angels of mercy in their communities,
survive the bad years, and master the situation commercially, show that
they can do this when the incentive that is rightfully theirs is given
to them, they have performed a service worthy of their strenuous labor,
their suffering, and even perhaps of their martyrdoms.

This chapter has spoken of an exceptional group; the following chapters
return to the average Country Girl and her general problems.

CHAPTER XI

THE NEW ERA

It is especially important that whatever will prepare country
children for life on the farm, and whatever will brighten home
life in the country and make it richer and more attractive for the
mothers, wives and daughters of farmers should be done promptly,
thoroughly and gladly. There is no more imp