_ IN DAKOTA, 17, 
to have to confess to such a folly as that. But what, 
about the tenants you want for those two quarter- 
sections out there. Have you got them yet?” 
“No, I havn't selected them yet. I guess I have 
had twenty applicants, though, since it became 
known that I wanted them, and all good people, too. 
[ tell you, Tom, if I had a county of land out there, 
I believe [ could put a good family on every quarter- 
section of it between this and next May on the terms 
you ard I talked over last fall. Really, most of them 
seem to prefer it to homesteading or pre-empting. 
Only yesterday, in an interview with one of them he 
said : ‘my means are very limited, and I am afraid 
to venture out there with my little family on what I 
have. But if I could make such an arrangement as 
you propose, and in that way get what little backing. 
I may happen to need for a while, I know I could 
in a few years own my own farm. And that’s some- 
thing I never can do here.’ And the man fairly 
begged for one of those quarters I bought in Dako- 
ta last fall.” | 
“Didn’t you suggest to him,” I asked, “that it 
might be better for him to go farther out and take 
a homestead, or a tree-claim, or a pre-emption?” 
“Yes, and really urged it on him. “But he has 
very little money, and is afraid to venture with what 
he has. ‘If I were alone,’ he said, ‘I would not hes- 
itate a moment, even if I had only enough money to 
take me there and pay the Land Office fees. I'd go 
and get my claim and live in a dug-out until [ could 
