Flirting with Danger

A pretty frnotier girl, named Sally, fell in lov with a young man who was a trapper named LaBelle. Thoughtlessly, she flirted with a formal rival of LaBelle’s, named Big Ben. During a corn husking, Big Ben was seen stealing a kiss from LaBelle’s girl, and LaBelle challenged Big Ben to prove his manhood out back in a clearing. The resulting duel was foght with heavy rifles. LaBelle was wounded in the neck, but Ben was shot in the chest and fell to the ground, dead. Sally regretted her foolishness, but LaBelle was forced to run to avoid being arrested. She never saw him again.

In the 1880’s, unmarried Katie Simson became a rancher and horse trader. Always a “lady,” she tended her herd of 4,000 horses with the help of a loyal hired man. While riding the range and driving the herd to the East, she wore maculine clothing, though always well tailored and stylish. Afterwards she would change to the trditional apparel of a well-brought-up lady; complete with a hat made in Paris. Miss Katie was tall, blond, green-eyed and very beautiful. She was, until her death of a stroke at age 80, still unmarried and respected by everyone who knew her.

It was a sad day when the mother and provider of the family was no longer able to take care of her brood. Their was mourning by all and it was a time of transition for the prarie family. New roles were assigned, and the oldest daughters stepped into that role.

A farmer’s wife lived on the prairie with her family. She made an entry in her diary: “The week Annie was born I cooked for 12 men who had come to help stack hay. In between the times I was serving them, I would creep into my bedroom to sink across my bed. I was sooo tired. Through the window I could see the mare and cows, which had been turned out to pasture for weeks because they were going to have their young. They were more rested than I was.

In the late 1800’s, Florence Ann Hattie had great difficulty in enduring, emotionally, the hard life of the traail. She wrote, “I would make a brave effort to be cheerful and patient until the camp work was done. I would start out ahead of the team and my men folks, and when I thought I had gone beyond hearing distance, I would throw myself down on the unfriendly trail and give way like a child to sobs and tears, wishing myself back home with my friends and scolding myself for consenting to take this wild goose chase.”

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