d come to make. But the film ended
with a woman driving sheepmen off her claim, and with that example to
fortify my ebbing courage, I asked for a new printing press. And I got
it!

The "new" press was a second-hand one, but in comparison to the Noah's
Ark model it was a mechanical wonder. I did not know that the proof king
was facing a financial crisis at that time. But I've always thought the
blow of having to buy a press was not half so bad as the shock of having
a printer who would ask for one.

While I was enjoying the new press one day the Reeds came by McClure.

"Well, good-by, folks."

"Oh, are you going?"

"Yes, proved up. Going back to God's country."

God's country to the Reeds was Missouri; to others it was Illinois, or
Iowa or Ohio. Day after day homesteaders left with their final receipt
as title to their land, pending issuance of a government patent.
Throwing back the type of the "dead" notices, I could almost tell who
would be pulling out of the country.

"Going back in time to get in the spring crop," farmers would say.

Land grabbers they were called. Taking 160 acres of land with them, and
leaving nothing. Most of them never came back.

And while this exodus was taking place, here and there a settler was
drifting onto the Lower Brule, a "lucky number" who had come ahead of
time--there was so much to do getting settled. And by these restless
signs of change over the plains, we knew that it was spring.

And one week I set up for the paper, "Notice is hereby given that Ida
Mary Ammons has filed her intention to make proof ..."

[Illustration]

VI

"UTOPIA"

With the first tang of spring in the air we cleaned the shack, put up
fresh curtains and did a little baking. Then we grew reckless and went
into an orgy of extravagance--we took a bath in the washtub. Wash basins
were more commensurate with the water supply. Then we scrubbed the floor
with the bath water. In one way and another, the settlers managed to
develop a million square miles of frontier dirt without a bathtub on it.

For the first time we stopped to take stock, to look ahead. For months
there had been time and energy for nothing but getting through the
winter. We had been too busy to discuss any plans beyond the proving
up.

"What are we going to do after we prove up?" I asked, and Ida Mary shook
her head. "I don't know," she admitted.

In some ways it was a relief to have the end in sight. I hated the
minute rou