Produced by Peter Vachuska, Chuck Greif, Emmy and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net THE BIOGRAPHY OF A PRAIRIE GIRL THE BIOGRAPHY OF A PRAIRIE GIRL BY ELEANOR GATES [Illustration] PUBLISHED BY THE CENTURY CO. NEW YORK MCMIX Copyright, 1902, by The Century Co. _Published October, 1902_ THE DEVINNE PRESS. TO MRS. PHOEBE A. HEARST CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I THE COMING OF THE STORK 3 II A FRONTIER CHRISTENING 11 III "LITTLE BOY BLUE" 30 IV A PARIAH OF THE PRAIRIES 48 V THE MISFIT SCHOLAR 64 VI THE STORY OF A PLANTING 87 VII TWICE IN JEOPARDY 103 VIII A HARVEST WEDDING 118 IX THE PRICE OF CONVALESCENCE 134 X "BADGY" 152 XI A TRADE AND A TRICK 170 XII THE PROFESSOR'S "FIND" 187 XIII A RACE AND A RESCUE 206 XIV HARD TIMES 224 XV THE FATE OF A CROWING HEN 242 XVI THE RESERVATION TRIP 257 XVII ANOTHER MOUND ON THE BLUFF 276 XVIII THE LITTLE TEACHER 292 XIX TOWARD THE RISING SUN 311 THE BIOGRAPHY OF A PRAIRIE GIRL THE BIOGRAPHY OF A PRAIRIE GIRL I THE COMING OF THE STORK IT was always a puzzle to the little girl how the stork that brought her ever reached the lonely Dakota farm-house on a December afternoon without her being frozen; and it was another mystery, just as deep, how the strange bird, which her mother said was no larger than a blue crane, was able, on leaving, to carry her father away with him to some family, a long, long distance off, that needed a grown-up man as badly as her three big brothers needed a little sister. She often tried to remember the stork, his broad nest of pussy-willows on the chin of the new moon, and the long trip down through the wind and snow to the open window of the farm-house. But though she never forgot her christening, and could even remember things that happened before that, her wonderful journey, she found, had slipped entirely from her mind. But her mother and the three big brothers, ever reminded by the stone-piled mound on the carnelian bluff, never forgot that day: