IN DAKOTA, 113 
“ And I presume there is if we knew just where to 
look for it,” I answered. ‘“ What would you like to 
do if you should go there?” 
‘ Anything that I can do that would afford me a 
prospect of a home of my own sometime. I can not 
do a farmer’s work, of course, but | was brought up 
ona farm, and if in some way | could get a start I 
have thought I might manage a farm. with the help 
of the advice of friends and neighbors. But 1 don’t 
know how to take the firststep in the matter myself, 
and I came to ask vou to show me the way, if there 
is any way.” 
“You could not go alone out on the prairie and 
take a homestead and live on it five years. That 
seems out of the question. You would have to make 
a living, and you could not do it there. You might 
take a pre-emption, live on it six months and then 
“prove up” and get your patent by paying two hun- 
dred dollars. But even then it would be unproduc- 
tive. It is true you might hire some of your neigh- 
bors to do some breaking for you and plant some sod 
crops, and they would pay you something. But this 
plan hardly seems to me adapted to your needs— 
though women sometimes do it and manage to get 
through. But it isa hard life, and I could not ad- 
vise a woman situated as you are to undertake it. If 
you had some friends who were going, and you could 
get a homestead or pre-emption near them, it could 
all be managed well enough. Often the houses on 
three or four claims are built near a corner and with-" — 
