E-text prepared by Barbara Kosker, Suzanne Shell, Jeannie Howse, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 24352-h.htm or 24352-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/3/5/24352/24352-h/24352-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/3/5/24352/24352-h.zip) +-----------------------------------------------------------+ | Transcriber's Note: | | | | Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has | | been preserved. | | | | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. For | | a complete list, please see the end of this document. | | | +-----------------------------------------------------------+ LAND OF THE BURNT THIGH by EDITH EUDORA KOHL Drawings by Stephen J. Voorhies New York, London, Funk & Wagnalls Co., 1938. TO THE MEMORY OF IDA MARY CONTENTS A Word of Explanation xxxiii I A Shack on the Prairie 1 II Down to Grass Roots 16 III "Any Fool Can Set Type" 36 IV The Biggest Lottery in History 46 V No Place for Clinging Vines 64 VI "Utopia" 83 VII Building Empires Overnight 99 VIII Easy as Falling Off a Log 120 IX The Opening of the Rosebud 143 X The Harvest 164 XI The Big Blizzard 185 XII A New America 199 XIII The Thirsty Land 214 XIV The Land of the Burnt Thigh 238 XV Up in Smoke 253 XVI Fallowed Land 268 XVII New Trails 282 [Illustration] A WORD OF EXPLANATION _I have not attempted in this book to write an autobiography. This is not my story--it is the story of the people, the present-day pioneers, who settled on that part of the public lands called the Great American Desert, and wrested a living from it at a personal cost of privation and suffering._