an emigration
movement."

_The Wand_ came out with an editorial called, "Beyond the State Line,
What?" It was based on Ida Mary's terse comment, "Back to the wife's
kinfolk," and concluded with my own views of the economic disaster which
such a general exodus would cause.

It took hold. Settlers who were ready to close their shacks behind them
paused to look ahead--beyond the state line. And they discovered that
their best chance was to fight it out where they were--if only they
could be shown how to get water.

No trees. No shade. Hot winds sweeping as though from a furnace. And
what water one had so hot and stale that it could not quench thirst.

We could ask our neighbors to share their last loaf of bread, but it was
a bold, selfish act to ask for water. I have seen a gallon bucket of
drinking water going down; have seen it get to the last pint; have held
the hot liquid in my mouth as long as possible before swallowing it.

The distances to water were so long that many times we found it
impossible, with all the work we had on hand, to make the trip; so we
would save every drop we could, not daring to cook anything which
required water.

One of the girl homesteaders came over with an incredible tale to tell.
She had visited one of the settlers outside the reservation gate who had
a real well. And his wife had rinsed the dishes when she washed them.

Ma prophesied that she would suffer for that.

Heine said one day, "My Pa don't wanta leave. We ain't got no moneys to
take us, Pa says."

There were many families in the same position. Get out? Where? How?

One day when Chris Christopherson came in I asked him why he thought the
water supply would be better in a year or so.

"We can dig better dams. If they bane twice so big this year, they be
full now from the snows and rains. We would yet have water plenty."

"We could dig cisterns, couldn't we?"

"Cost money, but not so much like deep wells. Trouble bane we not have
money yet nor time to make ready so many t'ings."

"Some of the farmers say," I told him, "that when we cultivate large
areas, loosening the soil for moisture absorption, they will be able to
get surface wells, especially in the draws. They say the tall, heavy
grass absorbs the surface and underground water."

Chris nodded thoughtfully. "Water will be more comin' in time," he
declared. "The more land plowed, the more moisture will go down in the
soil. It all the time costs more money to mo