The School, Well-digging, and a Picnic 



occasions is the goodfellowship which prevails, 

 for though the prairie is not free from those petty- 

 jealousies and misunderstandings to which poor 

 human nature is so prone, yet in the early stages 

 of settlement all are so much on the same level, 

 and struggling with the same difficulties, that 

 a true democratic spirit prevails. 



Perhaps to many, capable of appreciating such 

 a scene, the world has few more delightful ones 

 to offer than a gathering of people of many nation- 

 alities, mostly young or in the prime of life, full 

 of courage and hope and starting life, as it were, 

 one and all in a new land on a virgin soil. 



Such communities are dotted about all over 

 the great West, and the individuals composing 

 them have shaken off many of the convention- 

 alities that are perhaps partly needful, but yet 

 tend to mar the more artificial life of older civili- 

 zation. 



To those accustomed to the refinements of 

 life in cities the whole thing may seem very 

 rough and crude, but the conditions tend to em- 

 phasize the realities of life, and to rubbing off 

 of mere varnish and veneer. So such gatherings 

 may be full of interest and pleasure, and this 

 is much enhanced if the weather proves propitious, 

 as is often the case, with the fleets of great white 

 clouds sailing across the blue in stately pro- 



III 



