s, in this land without trees, were pecking at the
roof; it grew to a regular drumming sound. I lay for a few moments,
listening, wondering. Then I leaped out of bed, ran to the door and
stepped outside.

Rain! Rain! Rain!

"Ida Mary," I called, "get up! It's raining!"

She was out of bed in a moment as though someone had shouted "fire."

In nightdress, bare feet, we ran out on the prairie, reached up our
hands to the soft, cool, soothing drops which fell slowly as though
hesitating whether to fall or not. And then it poured. The grass was wet
beneath our feet.

We lifted our heads, opened our lips and drank in the cool, fresh drops.
I lay down on the cool blanket of earth, absorbing its reviving moisture
into my body, feeling the rain pattering on my flesh.

Over the prairie dim lights flickered through the rain. Men and women
rushed out to hail its coming--and to put tubs and buckets under the
roofs. No drop of this miracle must be wasted. In their joy and relief,
some of the homesteaders, unable to sleep, hitched up and drove across
the plains to rejoice with their friends.

After that eternity of waiting it rained and rained, until the earth all
about was green and fresh. Native hay came out green, and late-planted
seed burst out of the ground. Some of the late crops matured. There was
water in the dams! The thirsty land drank deep of the healing rains.

The air grew fresh and cool, haggard faces were alight with hope. The
Lower Brule became a different place, where once again people planned
for the future, unafraid to look ahead.

With the mail bag, the salvaged type, and Margaret's few sticks of
furniture which she wrote to us to take, we moved back to the homestead,
to the site of Ammons.

The settlers had the building up. This time it was a little
square-roofed house made of drop siding (no more tar paper). A thin,
wall-board partition running halfway to the ceiling divided the small
living quarters from the print shop.

The McClure _Press_ had died the natural death of the proof sheet, and
the proof king was submerged in the cause of prohibition. Later he was
appointed federal prohibition agent for the state of South Dakota. He
gave us most of the McClure _Press_ equipment. So I got that hand press,
after all. What few proofs were yet to be made in that section were
thrown to _The Wand_. With the current proof money coming in we bought
the additional supplies necessary to run the paper.

I sent a