there for a few months, then escaped and
walked all the way home, nearly two hundred
miles, traveling by night and hiding in barns
and haystacks by day. When she got back to
the Norwegian settlement, her poor feet were
as hard as hoofs. She promised to be good, and
was allowed to stay at home -- though every
one realized she was as crazy as ever, and she
still ran about barefooted through the snow,
telling her domestic troubles to her neighbors.

Not long after Mary came back from the
asylum, I heard a young Dane, who was help-
ing us to thrash, tell Jake and Otto that
Chris Lingard's oldest girl had put Ole Benson
out of his head, until he had no more sense
than his crazy wife. When Ole was cultivating
his corn that summer, he used to get discouraged
in the field, tie up his team, and wander off to
wherever Lena Lingard was herding. There
he would sit down on the draw-side and help
her watch her cattle. All the settlement was
talking about it. The Norwegian preacher's
wife went to Lena and told her she ought not
to allow this; she begged Lena to come to
church on Sundays. Lena said she hadn't a
dress in the world any less ragged than the
one on her back. Then the minister's wife went

[[189]]

p188x7b _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p189w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p190

v?