IN DAKOTA, 139 
provided you treat it as well. But it will resent bad 
treatment by a meager return of crops, as a spirited 
man would resent an insult. And trees will grow as 
rapidly for you as these have for me, and vines will 
grow and twine over a plain milk-house and make it 
look like an arbor just as freely for your wife as 
these have done for mine. Understand, Mr. Stock- 
dale, that lam not trying to persuade you to come to 
Dakota. I don’t know whether you ought to come 
or not, for | know nothing about your situation or 
circumstances. I was only endeavoring in what I 
said to remove from your mind the impression that 
there was any ‘knack’in getting on here in Da- 
kota. There is no ‘knack,’ nor genius, nor luck about 
it—nothing but plain, honest work, and the exer- 
cise of a reasonable amount of common sense. My 
wife and I both take a great deal of pleasure in hav- 
ing things neat and tasteful about us, therefore we 
have them so. It costs but very little work to keep 
this lawn in order, taks care of the shade trees. and 
cultivate the flowers, but if it cost five times as much 
we would do it all the same, and consider it time 
well spent. So far as we know this place will be 
our home as long as we live, and we propose to have 
it as beautiful as we know how to make it. Perhaps 
some day, when we get a little farther along financi- — 
ally, we will have a landscape gardener come here 
and lay out ten or fifteen acres around the house, ac- 
cording to the rules of art and good taste. Of course 
some people would consider that a foolish waste of 
