text: As they walked away, Grit said, "We may as well wait for tomorrow to get our supplies and load up the wagon, but paying him to take the stoves and furniture will lessen our load. Let's go to the general store and look for some books. We're gonna have lots of time on our hands this winter."
  
  "I thought we's choppin' wood all winter," Paulie said.
  
  Grit chuckled, "We can't chop wood in a blizzard or a heavy snowstorm, and I hear they have some doozies up here. Of course, we'll have to get out and feed the animals."
  
  "I heard about the big storms, but I doubt they're worse than those in Ohio," he said.
  
  "We'll soon find out, but during the winter I intend for us to work no more than six or eight hours a day. That's a lot in the cold, and we'll have to eat more to stay warm, so we'll need to buy extra flour, cornmeal and other supplies. And we'll need to buy lots of oats for the horses."
  
  "Okay, let's visit the stores and make a list," Paulie said. "Then you can look for books."
  
  "Yeah, and you can look for books too, my boy," Grit said.
  
  "Why?" Paulie asked.
  
  "You know, Paulie, you're a nice young man. You're everything I'd ever want in a brother. I been thinkin' about it, and I want a better life for you."
  
  Paulie looked at Grit askance. "What kind of better life?"
  
  "Down in Nebraska," Grit said, "I hear they got a state college in Lincoln. That's a little west of Omaha, and I think you should go there and get educated."
  
  "Where did all this come from?" Paulie asked, his forehead creased with worry and apprehension.
  
  "I got lots of time to think while we're cuttin' logs, Paulie, and I want you to have a better life than this. You don't wanna be strugglin', cuttin' logs for the rest of your life. You could be a lawyer or doctor or businessman. There's lots of opportunity for a man with an education, and you wouldn't have to be slavin' away cuttin' wood."
  
  "I like cuttin' wood, and I don't wanna leave you," Paulie said.
  
  "You think about it this winter," Grit said, "and we'll talk about it later."
  
  They loaded the wagon the next day, having bought everything they thought they'd need during the long, cold winter ahead. Grit had a nice stack of books he intended to read that winter, and he'd selected some for Paulie, hoping he'd want to study math, literature and science. He'd also bought himself a Sharps buffalo rifle and two Colt .45s.
  
  "How much money we got left?" Grit asked Paulie.
  
  "Four thousand, one hundred and some, but we still gotta pay for the rest of the house."
  
  "Okay, you see that Dakota Bank there?"
  
  "Yeah, what about it?"
  
  "Let's put $3,200 in there," Grit said. "That'll more than pay for four years of college for you if you decide you wanna go."
  
  "I'm not sure I trust banks," Paulie said.
  
  "Well, I trust 'em, so hand over $3,200, and we'll still have enough to pay off the house and buy any additional supplies we need during the winter."
  
  Paulie pulled out the little leather sack and reluctantly counted out the money.
  
  When Grit came back from the bank, he climbed into the driver's seat of the wagon, put his arm around Paulie's shoulder and pulled him close. "I put the account in both our names. You can't blame me for lookin' out for ya."
  
  "No, it's not that," Paulie said. "It's the thought of leavin' you. I've never felt like I belonged anywhere... and now I do."
  
  "That's not gonna change, Paulie," Grit said. "You'll always have a place wherever I am. Here, take this bank book and put it with the money in the leather sack. That's your education money, and we'll wanna add to it next year. I been thinkin' maybe we could both go to college and come back and cut wood in the summers to support ourselves."
  
  When they got back to the homestead, Grit started scouting the riverbank for sandstone, and a short distance up the river, he found a ledge that was just right. In Yankton, they'd bought picks, drills and shovels, and they started harvesting enough sandstone, which they carried up by the wagon load so that when the workmen arrived, it would be there for their use. With good mortar, the stones would make a solid foundation for each of the buildings and keep the wood from rotting.
  
  As the lumber wagons pulled up, a hefty man jumped down and said, "I'm Oleg Andersen, foreman of the building crew. Tell me where you want to build the house."
  
  "We've staked it out there," Grit said. "And over there to the left is where the barn will be. Build the house where the stakes are, facing the river. We've brought up the sandstone to make the foundations. We want it all up off the ground. And the barn too. I don't want the lumber rotting next to the ground."
  
  "Understood," Andersen said. Grit and Paulie helped the builders unload all of the lumber and other supplies before taking the scythe they'd bought in Yankton and starting to harvest the prairie grasses against the winter to come. They took turns using the scythe while the other bundled the grasses and stacked them in the wagon. They carried them back and stacked the bales in the area next to where the barn would be built.
  
  Day after day while the workmen built the house and barn, Grit and Paulie brought in more animal fodder for the upcoming winter. As soon as the barn was complete, they took the wild hay into the barn and stored it in the attic.
  
  When the house and outbuildings were complete, they paid off the carpenters, walked up the steps and sat down on the front porch in the two rocking chairs and looked off at the Missouri River far below.
  
  "Well, Paulie, it'll take a while to make this house our home," Grit said. "Sure is a beautiful view out across the river valley."
  
  "Sure is, but I'm more excited about sleepin' in a bed," Paulie said with a laugh. "And having a stove to cook on. I'll have a pot of stew on the stove all the time."
  
  "How about we go down to the reservation and see if the Yankton tribe will sell us some buffalo robes," Grit said.
  
  "We got plenty of blankets," Paulie said.
  
  "Yeah we do, but not for the floor, and we didn't buy any rugs."