t of a baby on her arm, patiently
waiting her turn. She was shabbily dressed, with a trace of gentility in
clothes and manner. Whether she was a widow or unmarried only the Land
Office knew, but it pinched the heart to realize the straits of a
fragile girl who was ready to undertake the burden of a homestead alone.

"You are getting to be an outlaw printer," the proof king wrote me. "You
were not authorized to incur this additional expense." But, catching the
excitement of the crowds and perhaps a little of their gambling spirit,
I was not upset by his reproof. I filled the paper with the news items
about the Opening and sold out every copy to the landseekers passing
through.

The plains never slept now. All night vehicles rattled over the hard
prairies. Settlers on their way home, starting for Pierre, hurried by in
the middle of the night. Art Fergus's team of scrubby broncos were so
tired they didn't even balk in harness. Flivvers bumped over the rough
ground, chugging like threshing machines.

The westerners (every man's son of us had become a full-fledged native
overnight and swelled with pride as the tenderfeet said "You
westerners") responded exuberantly to the sudden life about us. Cowboys
rode in from the far ranges for one helluva time. They didn't kowtow to
this "draw-land" game, but they could play draw poker. And they wasn't
gamblin' for no homestead--you couldn't give 'em one. But they'd stake
two or three months' wages on cards. They rode hell-for-leather down the
streets, gaudy outfits glittering in the sun. With spurs clicking they
swung the eastern gals at a big dance. And the dignity of the state
capital be damned!

The whole prairie was in holiday mood. Ida Mary dismissed school at
noon--no one cared whether school kept or not--and we put on our
prettiest dresses to join the crowd. Through the throngs pushed the land
locators. They stood on curbs, in front of the Land Office and the
hotels, grabbing and holding onto their prospects like leeches. They had
been accustomed to landing a settler once in a blue moon, driving the
"prospect" over miles of plain, showing him land in various remote
districts in the hope that he would find some to suit him. Now they had
dozens clamoring for every quarter-section. This was their golden
harvest. Nearly all the seekers were too avid for land to be particular
about its location, and many of them too ignorant of the soil to know
which was the best.

"Plumb loco