Words are useless in the effort to portray that journey to the safe shelter of the farmhouse, with the touching obedience of the children to every word of direction--rather _felt_ than _heard_, in that fierce winding-sheet of ice and snow. How it cut and almost blinded them! It was terrible on their eyes. They beat their way onward, groping blindly in the darkness, with the visions of life and death ever before the young teacher responsible for the destiny of seventeen souls. All reached the farmhouse and were given a nice warm supper prepared by the hostess and the teacher, and comfortable beds provided. Minnie Freeman was unconscious of anything heroic or unusual. Doing it in the simple line of duty to those placed in her care, she still maintains that it was the trust placed in the Great Spirit who guides and cares for His own which led the little band-- "Through the desert and illimitable air, Lone wandering, but not lost." AN ACROSTIC _Written to Miss Minnie Freeman in 1888 by Mrs. Ellis of St. Paul, Nebraska. Mrs. Ellis was then seventy-eight years old--now deceased_ 'Midst driving winds and blinding snows, Impending dangers round her close; No shelter from the blast and sleet, No earthly help to guide her feet. In God alone she puts her trust, Ever to guide the brave and just. Fierce and loud the awful storm, Racking now her slender form, Eager to save the little band Entrusted to her guiding hand. Marshalled her host, see, forth she goes And falters not while tempest blows; Now God alone can help, she knows. See them falling as they go; Angry winds around them blow. Is there none to hear their cry? Now her strength will almost fail; Tranquil, she braves the fearful gale. PreÎminent her name shall stand, A beacon light o'er all the land, Unrivalled on the page of time; Let song and story swell the chime. EARLY DAYS IN NANCE COUNTY BY MRS. ELLEN SAUNDERS WALTON In 1872, after passing through a great sorrow, a longing came to me to enter the missionary field among the Indians. At that time the Pawnee tribe was located on their reservation, now Nance county, and I was sent to work among them. It was interesting, at the same time sad and depressing, to witness the degeneration and savagery of tribal life; and ofttimes it was seemingly hopeless to civilize and christianize them. In 1874 the Pawnees were removed by the government to Indian territory, now Oklahoma, and the reservation was thrown on the market. This became Nance county, and a new order of things followed. Settlers came to the little hamlet of Genoa, that had been first settled by the Mormons in 1857, and though later given over to the Indians, it was one of the oldest towns in Nebraska.