1. I thought I was prepare for what our family would expect on the wide-open planes of the frontier. I was wrong.
2. The letter from Father's brother arrived at our home in Philadelphia on May 1, 1867, coincidentally the Day Nebraska became the 37th state in the Union. Uncle Matthews have been searching for land in Nebraska for 2 years and have secured a land for our family, if we want it. Was father interested?
3. Of course he was interested! Ever since my uncle and his family mood West, it's been all father could talk about—the adventures, the awards of being reaped from working on the land, the freedom, the wide open space. Mother was not so sure about living on the prairie, but she had hitched her dreams to Father's long ago. So it was when we set off with everything we owned tied down to a solitary wagon covered with a large white canvas cloth.
4. weeks later we stood with Uncle Matthew by a small stream on our new land—anchors and anchors of earth blanket with the tall prairie grass. "The first chore," he said "is to build a house." But there was almost no stone to use for construction. The the few trees within sight were not suitable for lumber, Andy clay needed for bricks and scarce.
5. "What kind of house?" I posed out loud.
6. He chuckles ruffling my hair. "A soddie."
7 So a sod house it would be. I was set to cut the long grass short with help of scythe scythe swing back and forth over the land. Mother gather the grass and bundles and use for kindling. Uncle Matthew's hitched a plow called a "grasshopper" to one of the horses and begin cutting strips of sod about 18 in wide and 4 in thick further use an axe to hew bricks of sod.
8. We only cut as much sod as we could use each day and lay the bricks in a criss-cross pattern. We left gaps for the doors and windows. we fashioned the roof of twigs and branches woven together with straw pile on top, and we place more sod above as a final layer.
9. "The canvas from the wagon will come in handy," Uncle Matthew's remarks.
10. "For what." I asked.
11. "We'll hang it inside, under the ceiling. It'll catch dirt and critters that might drop down. unless you rather have them plop into your stew or fall on your bed," he laughed.
12. We hung a horse's like it in the entryway to serve as a door until we could fashion a real one wood, and we use paper grease with animal fat as Windows. The house was just one room, but it was our whole living area—parlor, kitchen, and bedrooms—all in a single place. Cozy was the only word I could think of to describe it at the moment.
13. But during that first year, I also learned that are soddie kept us warm in the winter and cool in the summer. It leaks when it rains and on hot days Mother could pour water on the floor once a week to keep the dust settled. The three of us were crowded but happy, and no one I knew from Philadelphia could walk outside on day in May and see wildflower springing from roof and walls of his house!
Which point of view would allow the author to reveal the thoughts of both the mother and the father?
Ofirst person
O omniscient
O dramatic
O limited
