More Homestead Hardships Remembered by Sadie

     In her old age Sadie painted the picture above showing how she remembered her homestead in Montana.  Below her memories continue:

    My second school was about 13 miles from my place.  It was known as Castor School.  I boarded with a family by the name of Howell.  They had two boys, the oldest was a boy in his early teens, and he used to let me ride his pony back to my place on Friday night as it was quite a walk.  

    One Sunday when I returned to their house, he was in bed and his mother told me he was very ill.  I realized that when I heard him moaning.  He was one of my pupils and I knew he was not putting on an act.  This went on for a couple of days.

    His father was a railroader and was not at home.  The mother sat as if she were in a trance.  I realized something had to be done, so I walked over to the home of Mr. Castor who was on the school board and he drove me twenty miles to see a nurse.  We brought her back with us and she said that she felt certain he had osteomyelitis, as his leg had started to turn black.  

    She advised us to get him to the Great Falls Hospital at once.  The mother went with hm and the grandmother came to stay with us.  He was in the hospital for over a year.  The doctors wanted to amputate, but he would not let them.  I learned after I left Montana that he recovered enough to walk.

    It seemed as if everything happened at this place.  I killed my first Diamond-back rattlesnake as it was sunning itself in the yard.

    One Sunday when I was out on a picnic with some of the young folks, the lightning struck the house where I was boarding, and tore off the front of the house.  I had to take my belongings (what was left of them, as some were destroyed by fire) and hunt for a new boarding place.

    I remember once when I was riding the pony home and feeling pretty lonely (as my days sometimes looked, as if there was nothing good in sight), I happened to glance up and see a lonely bird winging along.  My students had been memorizing the poem, “To A Waterfowl” and that last stanza came to my mind:

    He, who, from zone to zone,

    Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight,

    In the long way that I must trace alone,

    Will lead my steps aright.

My paintings can be seen at:  davidmarchant2.ca