Birdie - When I was ready for school I had to go to the “Lone Star” school which was three miles southwest of our place. Daddy bought a little high-spirited pony, and I rode horseback for three years. Lots of mornings I would be so cold I couldn’t walk when I’d get there. A boy about 15 years old always was there to build the fire and get the school house warm. Many times he would carry me in and set me by the stove, and if it was stormy he would get my pony and put me on her to go home at night. There were 7 kids riding horseback to school, only two going my way, but we did enjoy it when it wasn’t too cold.
Uncle Jim and gotten married by now, and Aunt Fern was sure I’d get hurt riding that pony. No wonder she worried, for we would go by her home on a dead run, dinner pails rattling and girls giggling, talking and yelling like three little Indians.
After I went three years horseback, Norman was ready for school, so Daddy bought a cart and we drove to school two years. Then Augusta (born 5 August 1897) was ready to go. She had to sit down front in a basket at our feet. We had one gate to go through if we went by Uncle Jim’s place. This particular evening we had to give Uncle Jim a note from Daddy, so we went that way. Norman opened the gate, but he couldn’t shut it, so I got out to help him and the pony started off on a trot. We couldn’t run fast enough to catch her, so we told Gusta to jump out. What did she do? She threw out lunch pails, quilts and everything else in the cart before she jumped out! So besides walking on home, we had all those things to carry. Imagine three unhappy tired children lugging all that down the road. When the pony arrived home without her passengers Mother sent Uncle Jack back to pick us up and were we ever glad
Norman - As time went on there were three of us going to school. Birdie, as the eldest, was our driver, and things do happen! [One time we had] a broken buggy shaft by bumping a cow that was too gentle to move out of the way. [Another time] there was a barbed wire gate to pass through. It was tight and hard to close. Augusta was too small to be of much help, so I had to call on Birdie. Augusta was left in the buggy. The horse became impatient to get started and headed for home while we were shutting the gate. Birdie shouted to Augusta to get out. She did, but first she emptied out the robes, dinner pails and books. So we were loaded as we started to trudge home. When the horse and empty buggy got to Uncle Jim’s place, he turned it around and came back and got us.
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