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 LETTERS
 OF A WOMAN
 HOMESTEADER

 BY

 Elinore Pruitt Stewart

 front page image
     
 

 BOSTON AND NEW YORK
 HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
 The Riverside Press Cambridge

 1913 AND 1914, BY THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY CO.
 1914, BY ELINORE PRUITT STEWART
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
 Published May 1914

     
 
 PUBLISHERS' NOTE

     The writer of the following letters is a young woman who lost her husband in a railroad accident and went to Denver to seek support for herself and her two-year-old daughter, Jerrine. Turning her hand to the nearest work, she went out by the day as house-cleaner and laundress. Later, seeking to better herself, she accepted employment as a housekeeper for a well-to-do Scotch cattle-man, Mr. Stewart, who had taken up a quarter-section in Wyoming. The letters, written through several years to a former employer in Denver, tell the story of her new life in the new country. They are genuine letters, and are printed as written, except for occasional omissions and the alteration of some of the names.
     4 Park St.
     

 CONTENTS

   I. The Arrival at Burnt Fork 3 II. Filing a Claim 7 III. A Busy, Happy Summer 15 IV. A Charming Adventure and Zebulon Pike 23 V. Sedalia and Regalia 45 VI. A Thanksgiving-Day Wedding 54 VII. Zebulon Pike visits his Old Home 60 VIII. A Happy Christmas 64 IX. A Confession 77 X. The Story of Cora Belle 81 XI. Zebbie's Story 100 XII. A Contented Couple 117 XIII. Proving Up 133 XIV. The New House 137 XV. The "Stocking-Leg" Dinner 143 XVI. The Horse-Thieves 157 XVII. At Gavotte's Camp 180 XVIII. The Homesteader's Marriage and a Little Funeral 184 XIX. The Adventure of the Christmas Tree 193 XX. The Joys of Homesteading 213 XXI. A Letter of Jerrine's 218 XXII. The Efficient Mrs. O'Shaughnessy 220 XXIII. How it Happened 225 XXIV. A Little Romance 230 XXV. Among the Mormons 256 XXVI. Success 279