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There was a considerable period when events of iainst the background of the opening of its first

school This was not entirely on account of the deep interest

her education by the residents, but owing

rather to the personality of the pioneer school-teacher, and the deep,

abiding impress which she made upon the community

Miss Phoebe Spencer ca-point soh she

proudly na once visited in that

metropolis for three delicious weeks She was of an ardent,

impressionable nature Her mind was nurtured upon Eastern conceptions

of our coloeird tales of the

frontier, and her bright eyes perceived the vivid coloring of romance

in each prosaic object west of the tawny Missouri All appeared so

different frorown

accustoe,--while

her brain so teemed with lurid pictures of border experiences and

heroes as to reveal romantic possibilities everywhere The vast,

rand, solemn

mountains, and frankly spokenthe inevitable "gun," was to her a newly discovered world She

could scarcely comprehend its reality As the apparently illi, rolled away behind, mile after

riination seemed to

expand with the fathoer eyes

traced the serrated peaks of a snow-clad e, her heart