CHAPTER XII 

 WOMEN ON THE PRAIRIE 



Tom, I knew, kept up a correspondence with a 

 certain young lady who hved near his old home, 

 and, as is so apt to be the case, the fact leaked 

 out among our youthful friends and neighbours, 

 and this led to a certain amount of good-natured 

 banter. Nor was he the only youthful bachelor 

 among our little " bunch " of neighbours who 

 was suspected of an ambition to grace his home- 

 stead with a fair partner, and now and then, as 

 we gathered round the stove in each other's 

 shacks, the chaff and jocular allusions would 

 take a more serious turn as to the real difficulties 

 attendant on bringing women, and especially young 

 wives, to the prairie. 



We had a few women neighbours, but for the 

 most part they had been married before being 

 transplanted, and whatever their private opinion 

 of the life might be, they were loyal helpmates of 

 their husbands, and it may truthfully be said that 

 the country-side was the better for their presence. 



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