Papa had a garden in back of the house on both sides of a long path that led to the privy. Just a few steps from the back door was a well where all our water had to be drawn up in buckets. A kitten fell in the well one day and Mama got a neighbor to get it out.

We had very few close neighbors. Mama's best friend was Mrs. Ingles next door. They had a girl, Eva, and a boy, Glenn. Both were real imps even though Mrs. Ingles was so very proper. She was a Canadian. Her husband was an engineer very unlike her, a blustering bully and very crude.

Eva was about Hazel's age and Glenn about my age. One day Eva and Hazel planned a parade--we were to take off all our clothes and march around the back yard but before it materialized, Mama found out what was planned and put a stop to it.

At that time there was only Gretchen, Hazel and myself. There had been a boy, Dwight, but he died with diphtheria at one and a half years.

Some distance back of the house was what the natives called "the draw." We picked wild flowers there in the spring. Hazel went there often--said she was playing with a friend named Lela. She talked so much about this imaginary friend that it worried Mama. She talked to Mrs. Ingles about it and she advised her that the answer might be to name the baby soon to be born, Lela. And so that's how Lela came by that name.

The neighbor Glenn was the only boy near and he made our lives miserable. I don't know what I was like but I remember Mrs. Ingles saying, "Why, Glennie, what's the matter with you--you're getting as obstinate as Mattie." Hazel and I always seemed to be getting into trouble. Gretchen was more quiet. Her friend Gracie came often and they played with their china-headed dolls.

Hazel and Gretchen had to walk so far to school so the folks decided to move where it would be easier for them. And so we moved where we had more neighbors but the homes were still in clusters with wide spaces between clusters. Papa bought a lot across the street and worked early morning and late nights building a home. His regular work was at what was called the Burlington "Round House." Here he re-finished wood and repaired in railroad coaches.

While living here Hazel and I had the measles. Mama tried to keep us in bed in a dark room as the doctor had advised but we were up and down and looking out the windows. There was a blizzard and we watched a neighbor man coming home but he could hardly walk against the wind and blinding snow so he staggered and we thought it was funny.

I had a birthday, my fifth. Unknown to Mama, Hazel planned a surprise party asking some of her school friends. Mama, not knowing, was washing and it was starting to snow when they came. Not having anything for refreshments, Gretchen and a friend went out to buy something. There were no bakeries or commercial ice cream then and with it snowing so hard and all, they ended up with corn to pop. The two of them popped it and burned most of it. Some of the girls were mad, especially the sisters who each brought me a little glass pitcher. They said Hazel told them it was going to be a real party with cake and she didn't give them anything but burnt popcorn.

Here was where I learned to play Hop-Scotch. Gretchen and Akron Selby, a boy who came to play, supervised it. The house across the street was finally finished and we moved in. There was room for a big garden, a couple of cows, a couple of pigs and chickens. Papa was very happy with all this. Also we had city water but there was a pipe about three feet high in both front and back yard and from the faucets there water for the house had to be carried in. It made it easy to attach hose for the garden and livestock.

I'll never forget the front bedroom there--nice bedspreads and pillow shams, and a commode dressed up with a nice bowl and pitcher, fancy guest towels hanging on the rod on the back of the commode--and the soap dish with amber soap called Jap Rose and what a beautiful smell. I remember the wrapper the soap came in, pink and red with a Japanese girl in kimona and such black hair. Floss was born here in this room--really named Marcella.

The kitchen had a wood floor like most folks. Lye was used alot for scrubbing. Then there was a cleaning powder called "Gold Dust." On the box was two little pickaninnies. They were called the "Gold Dust Twins." There was the coal range with the bucket of coal and box of kindling nearby.

There were no sinks, but a worktable, a table or bench with a washpan, soap and a bucket of water with a dipper in it. Mama washed clothes on a washboard in a wooden tub with water carried from the yard. The white clothes were boiled in a clothes boiler on the stove. I'll always remember the smell of clothes boiling. Clothes were wrung out with a hand wringer. On the kitchen shelf was the clock I had always known and a coffee grinder, as coffee was sold in beans and ground at home. We had a brand that came in a heavy paper sack with a big circle on one side with a lion's head inside. Mama ironed with an iron that was all iron (handle and all) heated on the coal range and hung on to the iron with a hot pad.

Although I was five in February I didn't start school until the next September. School up to the fourth grade was very close.

Folks had to bake their bread and I remember many days when I came home from school, the house smelled of fresh baked bread and fresh ironed dresses were draped around on chairs and in the sun.

In our back yard was a storm cave--most people had them, we had such severe storms and sometimes cyclones. One day a cyclone cloud appeared. I remember people talking about it looking like a fish standing on its nose. Neighbor men were coming home from work. Even the chickens seemed to sense something ominous. They ran around in their yard crazy-like. Papa came home and hustled us into the cave. But it veered off and hit some distance away. Another time I remember a storm came at night and lightning and thunder were fierce. The folks got us out of bed and by the light of a lantern we all went to the cave with our pillows and covers. Papa had made bunks for us all- -there was a nail on a post to hang the lantern. We were really quite comfortable and the earthy smell was good. In the morning when Papa pushed the door open, the sun was shining bright.

This cave provided other things. Along the walls Papa had built shelves to hold jars and jars of vegetables canned that he had grown, pickles, and some canned fruits. We never found these in the stores at that time. Going down the steps into the cave, on each side were shelves made by cutting away the dirt and levelling. This dirt shelf helped to keep the milk and churned butter cool. Milk, when it came to the house was strained by using a fine wire strainer with a bleached out salt sack spread in it. Then it was put into big crocks to set on the dirt shelves. Papa made wood covers held on tight with the weight of a clean rock or brick. All our butter was churned, the moisture worked out with a paddle, then salted and molded in shape. Sometimes a press was used to stamp a leaf or flowers on the top of the loaf of butter. One day when Mama brought in a crock of milk, there was a centipede on top. They never figured out how it got there because those covers seemed so tight.

So Mama cooked meals, washed, ironed, sewed, canned, churned, baked, scrubbed and sewed--how in the world did she do it--all together we were seven now, five girls. She made us sunbonnets which we were supposed to wear but so often they hung on the back of our necks. We didn't have ready to wear stores so that meant sewing everything we wore. Papa did all the chores at home, then worked ten hours, then after supper it was chores again until after dark. He made a lawn in the front. Trees weren't very plentiful there but outside our front fence, there was a row of tall cottonwood trees. The town had no paving. In summer the streets had dust inches thick, when it rained it meant inches of mud and deep ruts where the wagons and buggies went through.

Winters were very severe. In the Fall, Papa put on storm windows and we had to wearing outing nightgowns and nightcaps. In summer, everyhing was dry and dusty. I remember how afraid Mama was of prairie fires--they did have them and with the expanses of dry prairie between clusters of houses it could sweep through pretty fast, the wind (seemed there was always wind) dry grass and tumbleweeds made it really travel.

I remember them talking about their crops on the farm, how the hot dry winds burned it up. If not the wind, the grasshoppers got it. Seems crops were mostly failures. We had plenty of grasshoppers always. We would try to catch them because some of the kids said that they had heard if you hold onto their legs they would spit tobacco. We also had centipedes and devil's darn-needles. I remember Mama saying because I was always thin that nothing grew there but cactus and snakes. Gretchen and Nellie Bennet killed a snake one day. They hung it on the fence-- said it wouldn't be really dead until sundown.

Papa always took us to Sunday School. Mama always had so much to do and she got a big dinner Sunday. With the baking of pies and cakes on Saturdays she planned to have things for Papa's dinner pail all week. He carried a tin dinner-pail, the best that could be had at that time. There was no such thing as a thermos bottle. The dinner- pail's cover was a chamber for coffee with a round screw-on lid on top. Of course, the coffee was always cold. When we saw him coming home from work, swinging that bright tin pail, we all would run to meet him. He would pick Lela up and carry her. Sunday dinners were always pork or chicken because that's what they raised. Papa was really good at wringing a chicken's neck. Sometimes we tried to help pluck them. Then Mama singed the pin feathers and cut them up or baked them stuffed. Feathers were saved to stuff pillows. Mama and Papa had a feather tick on their bed. At Sunday School I remember hanging onto one side of the hymn book and standing beside Papa while they sang. He loved to sing hymns.

We had our picture taken. Floss wasn't in it. The photographer put Lela in a high chair covered with some kind of grassy stuff. She kept picking it off and throwing it on the floor. Gretchen was getting taller almost as tall as Papa so Mama said she felt almost ashamed for the neighbors to see such a big girl running out to meet Papa.

Papa always whistled while he went about his chores usually "There'll be a Hot Time in the the Old Town Tonight." Sometimes he sang "Ta Ra Ra Boom de Ray." He always seemed to be happy even though he worked all the time. We had a big rocking chair in the kitchen. On this rocker, he would rock the baby (Floss) to sleep singing "The Faded Coat of Blue."

I was in the first grade--there was no kindergarten in those days. The teacher put on a little play. The girls wore blue sailor dresses with pillows stuffed in front--we were Brownies. We had to sit on stools and Papa me one- - nicer than any of the others had. We were very seldom punished but Mama had a way of talking to us that got across. I remember once though, Hazel and I were out in the thick dust in the street, scooping it up and scattering it on our heads, calling it rain. Papa saw us, told us not to do it anymore, that Mama couldn't be washing our heads all the time. He went on about his chores and we thought he wouldn't see it, so we did it again. Next thing we knew we were getting paddled--and pretty good.

There was no refrigerator or ice in the homes so on special occasions, Papa would get ice from the ice house and make ice cream. Made with Jersey cream, it was very rich and good. Sometimes they put bananas in it.

Mama's sister Elizabeth (Mama called her Libbie) got married and moved in across the street in the house where we had lived while the house was being built. The other sister, Annie and her husband, John, came to visit there, also John's sister Martha. Martha had one peg leg and we were told beforehand not to seem to notice it. She was surprised she said to see Lela walking and she called her "Lela walk a lonee." This came about because Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii was in the news a lot. There was lots of talk about the Spanish-American War too and bands everywhere were often playing "The Spanish Cavalier." In fact, this song was a favorite of Mama's.

One Sunday, Papa's sister, Grace, came and also her husband-to- be. I remember how they teased Grace because at dinner Hiram had put his dinner napkin in his pocket and took it home.

Although Papa raised the pigs and fattened them, he had no place to butcher. There was a family in the country who did this and rendered the lard. Lard was the only shortening beside butter. They had a girl about my age and they asked if I couldn't go home with them as they had to come in again the next day. And so I went with them in their lumber wagon. Their home was a sod house with a dirt floor. They had many hired men and they served dinner to them with the family at a long table with benches like a picnic. There was a loaf of bread with a knife on the table and whenever anyone asked for bread the loaf and knife were both scooted to them. Our bed was a pile of straw in the corner of the room. Covers over the straw made a pretty good bed. This was a great experience and I never forgot it. They brought in the pork and lard and the folks made up sausage and pickled pigs feet and head cheese. Head cheese I never liked.

Floss was getting around now and into everything--she was everywhere before you could stop her. Papa said she was so "flossie" and that's where she got her nickname.

One day when Mama was hanging out the washing, Floss got a marble stuck in her throat. Hazel sat on the floor and put Floss on her stomach across her knees while I pounded her on the back and back of the head. We had her face bruised and nose bleeding and she was still choking. So we raised her up and I curled a finger around it and pulled it out. When Mama came in, all was well except for the bruised face and bloody nose. Mama said she would have been afraid to to try what I did but I didn't know any better.

Hazel and I often went to play with Agnes Gold. Their back yard was mostly a small orchard. Their father had made a hammock and hung it between two of these trees. It was made fo barrel staves wired together and stained green. We never had a hammock so this was a treat.

One day when Hazel and I were across the street at Libbie's house, she was busy with something in the back yard so there was no one in the house. There was a dish of pears on the table. The temptation was too much for Hazel but she was afraid if she took one Libbie would miss it. So she took a bite out of each one and turned that side in on the dish. She seemed to think that no one would notice this way.

Mama's sister Annie taught school in the country. But instead of

staying out there she had a buggy and a horse she always called "Old Fred." So she drove it daily. One Saturday she said she had to see some people in the country and I could ride out with her. When we got there, I saw their home was a dug-out. I had never seen one before and I kept wondering how they lived with just that little window and if inside it wouldn't be awfully dark. I never got to see because she told me to stay in the buggy and wait while she talked to them.

Grandma Irvin (Mama's mother) lived close enough for me to walk there sometimes. Grandpa was very stern but I guess I wasn't afraid of him. I must have bothered him a lot because he called me "Meddlesome Mattie." If he couldn't find his glasses or anything, he's always say, "I s'pose Mattie has been here." I didn't know anyone who wore glasses so they fascinated me. He would often lay them down on his open Bible which was always on a table beside his chair. He had a big loom for making rag rugs which most people there used and the ?stays? and all the strings intrigued me too. His health was poor. They said when he was a young boy, he was left an orphan and an uncle was to take care of him. The way he did it, he "bound him out" to a woolen mill owner. "Bound out" meant that he contracted the boy for a length of time for certain earnings which the uncle collected. Grandpa had to even sleep there. When the contract was up, he stayed on, learned the business and saved until he had his own woolen mill. It was on a river, the river current turning the big wheel that made things work. A big flood completely washed out the mill. Even before this Grandpa's health was very bad, they said due to breathing the lint for so many years. It was then he took up weaving carpet.

Papa always enjoyed the Fourth of July and he always had Roman candles and firecrackers for us. I remember the time it rained all day, really poured down. Papa opened the kitchen door, took some red coals out of the stove onto the coal shovel for us to light the firecrackers. Mama got us enough empty spools and they showed us how to fit the firecracker into the hole in the spool then hold onto the spool and let it go off in the open door.

In the Spring there was a type of greens grew wild on the prairie. Mama would take a dishpan and we would gather a pan full. That was enough for a meal cooked with some fat pork.

Papa bought an organ. I don't know if Gretchen had lessons or not but she soon playing and very well. One piece she played was "Just as the Sun Went Down." Mama's friend, Mrs. Hartman, always asked her to play it-- said she "could lay down and die and go to heaven" when she heard it.

Mama's best friends, Mrs. Bennet and Mrs. Hartman were both Catholics. Mama and Papa both belonged to the Christian Church. Papa was offered the job of brakeman on the Burlington. The run was from McCook to Denver. He tried it a while but didn't like being away from home and there were all the chores and garden Mama couldn't do. One time he bought home quail with him and we had them for dinner. He soon went back to his old job. When we got word that Grandpa had died and we went there, Grandma took me into their company parlor. It was darkened and Grandpa was laid out on a wood plank, the ends held by kitchen chairs. Grandma took me over to him, she said so I wouldn't be afraid of death and to remember him because I was named after him. On the front door was crepe, a big black bow with long streamers and the funeral was held in that room. That was the custom at that time.

Papa got a letter from his mother--she wished he could visit her. She hadn't seen him for some time and she was having some problems. He was the oldest son. He wanted to go and asked for time off. He was refused and he was so disappointed, he came home and I think up to then I had never seen him sad or look unhappy. As he told Mama about it, he sat down on the edge of the bed and cried and I felt so bad to see him like that, I sat next to him and cried too. Then the folks talked it over and decided to go anyway. Papa knew there were bigger Burlington shops at Plattsmouth, Nebraska. He felt sure he could get in with his kind of work. So they planned the trip and Papa quit his job. Mama had two dresses made. One was dark brown brocade with a tiny black leaf. The other was linen. I had rows and rows of white braid to make a deep yoke. It had a high fitted collar with the braid on. The skirt had a real deep full florence. She looked awfully pretty in these. They were really a cute and handsome couple. Papa always had pink cheeks and wore a mustache.

I remember once Gretchen and I had an argument about Mama's name. I said it was Doll. Gretchen said it was Belle. I said that was not so because Papa never called her Belle but always called her Doll. They packed lunch in shoeboxes--fried chicken, fruit, cake, etc, sold the house, packed clothes and furniture and we left McCook. We were to go to Redfield, Iowa where Grandma Walsh lived, visit there and then probably to Plattsmouth. I was seven years old when we left McCook.