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Show He learned that a boy his age wasn't supposed to know all of the answers to the questions that continually crowded his mind. And he found it best to go along and try to do what his mother expected him to do-to get up in the morning when she called and run for pails of water from the river. Bringing more wood from the woodpile, helping to milk the cow or cows, and dressing the younger children also made him feel that he shared importance with his mother. And when there was brush to be grubbed, or water to be tended on dry land, or hay scythed-or bundled and hauled to stacks-he soon learned to take each task in stride. As he did so, his capacity for doing more and more seemed to increase while his pre-man muscles were developing. Poor as the farm soil was (alkali in clay) the Bottoms was the place that contributed to the seasoned growth in the young boy. And he had come from the same matrix of strength that had produced Wilhelmina, his mother. HOMESTEADING For two years Wilhelmina and her children lived on the Bottoms homestead. Then, thinking they had proved it fully they lived in the little house in Mt. Pleasant again while logs were being brought from the mountains to build a larger and more permanent house on the farm. John K sometimes accompanied his father and Uncle Mads. Madsen on those logging trips, Ee looked forward to the experience, for he so seldom had an opportunity to he. with, his father. 33 |