text: A few miles from the fort, Little Elk said, "I go Fort Sully, deliver army horses, then find Custer. You go home from here. Can I keep rifle?"
  
  "Absolutely, you can," Grit said. "I owe you much, Little Elk. I couldn't have gotten my wife back without you, and I'll always be grateful."
  
  "Hokay, friend forever," Little Elk said with a smile as he extended his hand.
  
  Grit shook hands and nodded, "Yes, friend forever."
  
  Three hours later, Grit and Colleen rode up to their house. They could hear the sound of an ax, and Grit knew Paulie must be cutting wood. He lifted Colleen from her horse, and they both walked down to the woodyard and found Astrid sitting astride a log watching Paulie chop limbs from a bur oak with his ax. Paulie stopped, looked up and quickly dropped the ax. He ran toward them, grabbing Astrid as he ran by.
  
  "Look who's home, Astrid!" he yelled.
  
  She looked up and screamed, "Mama! Papa!"
  
  Paulie gently handed Astrid over to Colleen, and he hugged Grit. "It's so good to see you both. Astrid and I were worried. That's why I was cutting wood—to stay busy so I wouldn't worry so much."
  
  "Well, we're back now," Grit said.
  
  Paulie looked at Colleen's face and said, "I'm so sorry, Colleen, for what they did to you, but I thank God you're back."
  
  "Thank you, Paulie. It's so good to be back and see you and Astrid and our lovely home."
  
  That afternoon, Colleen had a long bath as Grit heated the water for her and kept adding hot water while she soaked. For the first time in two weeks, she washed her hair with real soap.
  
  "It's that lovely chestnut color again," Grit said as he smiled at her.
  
  While Grit took his own quick bath after Colleen got out, she dressed in clean clothing. "I think I'll just throw out these old things."
  
  "Fine with me," Grit said. "I'll build a fire and burn 'em."
  
  After they were both dressed, she hugged Grit and said, "Have I told you lately how much I love you?"
  
  "Not lately, no, but I should be telling you too. I do love you, my sweet Colleen."
  
  "You know what kept me going out there?"
  
  "Tell me," he said.
  
  "I knew nothing on earth would hold you back. So through it all, I knew those men would get their just punishment."
  
  Grit held her to his chest in the middle of the parlor until they heard Paulie and Astrid on the porch outside. Leaving Grit, Colleen walked over and opened the door.
  
  "Come on in, my sweet Astrid," Colleen said. "We're heating fresh bath water for you to have a soak in the tub."
  
  "No, I don't need a bath," Astrid said. "Paulie and I swam in the river."
  
  "Oh, did you now?" Colleen asked.
  
  "Yes, and it was so much fun," she said. "We saw some ducks swimming, and a mustrat too."
  
  "Oh, a mustrat. I don't think I've seen one of those, but you still need a nice, warm bath... with soap," Colleen said, "and we need to wash your hair."
  
  "Aw, do we have to?"
  
  "Yes, we do," Colleen said.
  
  "We'll go do the chores," Grit said. "I'll set the water buckets right outside the door."
  
  In the few days before Paulie's leaving, he and Grit threshed the wheat and put the kernels in gunny sacks for transport to the mill in Yankton.
  
  Four days later, Paulie rode off on the bay horse for Yankton to buy the clothes and other things needed for college. He had to have three dress suits made. The rest of the family packed up two days later to meet Paulie and buy supplies for the coming winter.
  
  "Are we all ready?" Colleen asked.
  
  "I think we are," Grit said.
  
  The trip took three days, and on the third day, they dropped off the wheat to be threshed at the mill before going on into Yankton.
  
  "We'll pick up our flour on the way back," Grit told the miller.
  
  "Then I'll pay for your excess when I see you," the miller said.
  
  As usual, they got baths and cleaned themselves up in Yankton before going to supper. Astrid ran to Paulie when she saw him, saying, "Paulie, I missed you."
  
  "You did?" She nodded. "Well, I missed you too."
  
  At supper that night, Colleen asked, "Paulie, are you excited to go off to college? I know I would be."
  
  "Yes, I'm excited, but I'm a little apprehensive too," Paulie said.
  
  "Why?" Grit asked.
  
  "I'll be in school with men older than me," Paulie said. "I hope I can keep up with my studies. So I'm a little worried about that, and I know I'm gonna miss everyone."
  
  "You'll be fine," Colleen said. "You have a good mind, and you can study as well as anyone. I wish I could go to college with you. I've always wanted to go to college."
  
  "But why?" Paulie asked.
  
  "I've always dreamed of being a teacher," Colleen said.
  
  The next morning after breakfast, Grit took out the draw-string bag with their money in it, and he removed a thousand dollars. "Alright, we earned a little over $4,500 this year, so you take a thousand dollars and open yourself a bank account in Lincoln. Take out money when you need it."
  
  "I don't need that much," Paulie said.
  
  "Maybe not, but I want you to have it," Grit said. "I don't want you to be the poorest young man in college. There will be some activities you'll wanna do, and I want you to take advantage of those. All your education doesn't come from books."
  
  At the train depot the next morning, Colleen and Astrid were crying and so was Paulie. "I already miss you, Paulie," Astrid told him through her tears.
  
  "I know, and I'll miss you too, my little sweetheart," Paulie said. It was a tearful farewell, but for Grit it was a satisfying one. Paulie was going to get the education that Grit himself had never gotten and most likely never would. When Grit hugged Paulie just before he got on the train, his only words were, "Make us proud."
  
  Grit and Colleen turned from the train station and went directly to Plunkett's General Store where they intended to get all the supplies they'd need for the winter ahead.
  
  As they walked into the store, Grit said, "C'mon, Astrid, let's get you some candy. You point to the ones you want, and the clerk will put 'em in a sack." She pointed and finally got her little sack of candy. Grit pulled a handkerchief and wiped the trails of tears from her eyes.
  
  "It'll be alright," he told her as he squatted down to her level. "Paulie will be back for Christmas. Let's go get you some new books."
  
  On the way to see about the books, Astrid stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of a beautiful little doll about a foot high that strangely enough looked a lot like Astrid with her blonde hair. Astrid didn't touch it, but stood eating a piece of candy and staring at the doll. Grit stepped over to Colleen and pointed to Astrid.
  
  "Oh my, can we get it for her?" Colleen asked.
  
  "Of course we can," Grit said. "You go get it for her."
  
  Colleen walked over, leaned down and spoke with Astrid, who was astonished when Colleen took the doll from the shelf and handed it to her. She cradled it in her little arms and kept staring down at it. Suddenly, she looked up at Colleen and asked, "Can I have her?"
  
  Colleen nodded, "She's going home with you."
  
  When they had all their supplies and had loaded them in the wagon, Grit said, "There's one other thing I wanna do."
  
  "What's that?" Colleen asked.
  
  "I'm going to the bank and add $2,000 to our account," he said. "And you need to come so that your name can be on the account too."
  
  When the banking was done, Grit said, "It's close enough to dinner time. Let's get one last meal at Frank's before we leave, and maybe we'll get some supper to take with us."
  
  Two days later, they pulled onto their property and Grit said, "You two ladies can go into the house. I'll unload the wagon."
  
  "Thank you," Colleen said as she took Astrid in her arms.
  
  As Grit watched her go, he found himself worried. Colleen had periods when she seemed to be in another world. She did everything required of her, but she seemed burdened, not at all happy and light-hearted like she had been before she'd been kidnapped. He thought maybe she was having a difficult time forgetting the awful things done to her, and he could understand that.
  
  It had taken Grit an hour to put all the supplies away, including the apples, heads of cabbage, potatoes, carrots and onions in the root cellar. When he came in, Colleen had supper cooking. Astrid had already eaten and had been tucked into bed. He walked over to her room and opened the door. He found Astrid already asleep and in her left arm was the new doll. He smiled to himself and closed the door.
  
  At supper, he asked Colleen, "Is there anything I can do for you, any chores you want me to do?"
  
  "As a matter of fact," she said, "you could plow the garden under for the winter and put horse manure on it."
  
  "Okay, I'll do it tomorrow," he said. "We won't have any more riverboats this year, so I've got all the time in the world. If you think of other things, just let me know."