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Show 229 the nests of pack r a t s . This was no simple operation, and had to be accomplished with numerous applications of boiling water, for they made huge nests of sticks and a tar-like dropping which had been building for these many years. The odor was strong and nauseating, but we finally got it clean. The company established a store and gave us heavy building paper in a choice of sickly blue or raucous pink (we took the pink), and wide nails to line the clap-board houses. We fixed the hinges, the leaks, the windows, and soon had a tight house. We bought congoleum rugs, made curtains, and even dug out the old pipe-line to our now corroded sink. The company had a direct current power plant and our house was still wired. Even though we sometimes had to light a match to see the electric light, it was electricity! Until our pipe-line was in operation we carried water for about two blocks. My husband (and all the other men) were paid two dollars a day. I saw an opportunity in this place, thirty miles from the nearest doctor, and applied for the yet non-existent job as company nurse. I was hired at fifteen dollars per month. I also became correspondent to the Richfield Reaper and sent in the Kimberly news which was printed at five cents per inch. What wealth! The doctors in Richfield knew me and were glad to have someone in Kimberly looking out for the town's health. A thin telephone line stretched across the rugged mountains and connected us with the outside. I was on call night and day, and dealt with everything from an epidemic of pin-worms |