d the "dogie" lambs which they were glad to
give away, and by tender care she preserved their lives. Soon she had a
flock of forty in good condition and preserved from attacks by the
wolves. The next step in her progress was that she began to help cook
for the sheep-shearer's men in order that her sheep might be sheared
along with theirs. The one to whom she appealed was kindly disposed and
he hauled her wool to town, bringing back to her the magnificent sum of
sixty dollars, all of which she soon had the hard luck to see paid out
for more quack medicines. And Cora Belle went on wearing the poor
gingham skirt that was so unskilfully cut that it sagged in the back
almost to the ground. No wonder that this unselfish, hapless little girl
touched the heart of the capable young woman homesteader so that she
made a party all for her, giving her a few simple presents, some
underclothes made of flour bags that she had carefully preserved, a
skirt of outing flannel and a white sun-bonnet built from a precious bit
of lawn and trimmed with an embroidered edging.

Cora Belle came to the party driving her lanky old mare, Sheba, hitched
up with the strong little donkey, Balaam, who balked every three miles
and had to be waited for. The grandparents were in behind all wrapped in
quilts, and they were as astonished as modest Cora Belle herself to find
that it could enter anybody's head to appreciate and honor that small
child. Now--good luck to all the Cora Belles! And may every one of them
find such a friend as this girl has found!

[Illustration: A happy homesteader in front of her "soddy." The vastness
of the country does not daunt her. She learns to love the quiet, broken
only by the roar of a river at the bottom of a canyon or the howl of a
coyote on the great sandy flats.]

While the brave people that have adventured into a new country will
invariably be interesting to the seeing eye, it is the experience of
many homesteaders to find in their expansive communities many who will
surprise them by their ability and attainments. This is not strange for
a new country always beckons to the strong, the intelligent, the highly
individual. In one region the forest ranger had been a newspaper editor
in Dublin; one of the hired men had been a photographer artist in
Detroit; another had been a wireless operator in Alaska; another was
educated in a German university, and an Oxford man drove the stage. "Our
neighborhood," says a college girl