jennies care

That winter Milton get married to Doris Nickels, she was only 16 years old but the county was going to take the children away from her mother, and send Doris away to some school. Milton did not want to give her up so he married her. When we went back to Red Mesa after school was out, Milton and his wife moved in with us to help papa on the farm.

The next winter Jennie took us to Durango for school. She was supposed to go to school and put us in school, Don, Daphne, Kate (me) and Edith. She did not go to school very long but got work to keep us in school so she said. I know she was in love with Steve McCormick, she had work on a ranch near Durango all summer and he was one of their boys. I do know we had a party about every other week and she would have plenty to eat. But the rest of the time we lived on boiled wheat and frozen milk that papa would bring to us and we would boil a big kettle of wheat and breeze the milk on the back porch.

She rented a piano for us girls to take piano lesson; she would give them to us herself. I always had to get up an hour early to practices on it. One night I come home from school and Jennie wanted me to practice and I did not want to. So she sets me down on the stool to make me. She put my hands on the keys and I just drop them off, that went on till she got mad and slap me off the stool.
Well I went to a small hill out side of Durango and on my way I meet Daphne and Edith. I told them if they went home that Jennie would kill them. So they went with me to the hill and we set there on rocks, till we saw papa coming in from Redmesa. We went home and Jennie had a hot supper for us. We were always glad when papa came in, then she had to cook for us.