ous young girl
from the Wisconsin farm would see it.

In my story Rose Dutcher made her way from Bluff Siding to the State
University, and from Madison to a fellowship in the artistic and
literary Chicago, of which I was a part. Her progress was intended to be
typical. I said, "I will depict the life of a girl who has ambitious
desires, and works toward her goal as blindly and as determinedly as a
boy." It was a new thesis so far as Western girls were concerned, and I
worked long and carefully on the problem, carrying the manuscript back
and forth with me for two years.

As spring came on, I again put "Rose" in my trunk and hastened back to
West Salem in order to build the two-story bay-window which I had
minutely planned, which was, indeed, almost as important as my
story and much more exciting. To begin the foundation of that
extension was like setting in motion the siege of a city! It was
extravagant--reckless--nevertheless assisted by a neighbor who was
clever at any kind of building, I set to work in boyish, illogical
enthusiasm.

Mother watched us tear out and rebuild with uneasy glance but when the
windows were in and a new carpet with an entire "parlor suite" to match,
arrived from the city, her alarm became vocal. "You mustn't spend your
money for things like these. We can't afford such luxuries."

"Don't you worry about my money," I replied, "There's more where I found
this. There's nothing too good for you, mother."

How sweet and sane and peaceful and afar off those blessed days seem to
me as I muse over this page. At the village shops sirloin steak was ten
cents a pound, chickens fifty cents a pair and as for eggs--I couldn't
give ours away, at least in the early summer,--and all about us were
gardens laden with fruit and vegetables, more than we could eat or sell
or feed to the pigs. Wars were all in the past and life a simple matter
of working out one's own individual problems. Never again shall I feel
that confidence in the future, that joy in the present. I had no
doubts--none that I can recall.

My brother came again in June and joyfully aided me in my esthetic
pioneering. We amazed the town by seeding down a potato patch and laying
out a tennis court thereon, the first play-ground of its kind in
Hamilton township, and often as we played of an afternoon, farmers on
their way to market with loads of grain or hogs, paused to watch our
game and make audible comment on our folly. We also bought a la