IN DAKOTA, 33, 
PRIDE GOETH BEFORE A FALL. 
One morning I went up to the second story ; the 
floor had not been laid. and I stepped on a loose 
board. I remember a crash and then all was blank. 
When I recovered consciousness I was lying on a 
bed, badly bruised and stunned, and with a terrific 
pain in my right leg about half way between my 
knee and ankle. A doctor had been sent for, and on 
his arrival made an examination, and reported that 
the leg was broken. If he had read my death-war- 
rant-to me, I don’t think I would have been more 
severely shocked. There was the season for putting 
in my crops right at hand, and I laid up for three or 
four months at least. | 
And there was that mortgage ! 
A GLOOMY OUTLOOK. 
T had 180 acres of land ready to be sown in wheat 
and oats, and nobody to do the work; for only the 
day before the man whom I had engaged to help me 
had sent me word that he had “ taken a claim ” some 
50 miles further west, and was going there at once. 
The man who lived in that tenant house had rented 
some land that would require about all his time. _ It 
seemed that in my time of great need it was abso- 
lutely impossible to get help for love or money. My 
wife rode many miles in search of help, but without 
success. Everybody had all they could do, and more, 
putting in their own crops. My neighbors, how- 
