Fish were always plentiful, especially in the spring and after the heavy June rains. Pickerel, suckers, and buffalo fish were salted down, dried and smoked. (There were no carp here then.) Boiled fish was the main dish on the settlers' table. It did not take much fat and went well with boiled potatoes.

        Pete Thompson and L. J. Heimness had a longing for "Lutefisk." They caught a bunch of buffalo fish and pickerel, salted and dried them. Then they made a lye out of woodashes and old fat, tried them out and the "Lutefisk" was ready for eating, generally with a white gravy. While the Leeds township fish lacked the flavor of the "torsk" of the North Sea, they carried a lot of sentiment and a lot of bones.

        Then there was game, when they had powder and shot. There were plenty of prairie chickens, the best eating of all game birds, and lots of ducks. But the settlers were not after such small stuff. Their supply of ammunition was small and they went after the geese, brants and cranes. Food was what they were after.

        When there was sugar in later years, there were always wild plums along the creeks; chokecherries, gooseberries, and raspberries in the Bear Lake woods and the banks of the Beaver Creek were purple with the wild grapes in the fall.

        Jackrabbits, not cotton tails, were hunted in the winter months. They were great big fellows and kept the pots and pans full of fresh meat.


CHRISTMAS IN THE EARLY SEVENTIES
        Christmas was the one big day of the year. It was not observed with rollicking fun and pleasure as we know Christmas. On Christmas Eve the settlers would walk across the crunchy snow to a nearby neighbors where as many as the little home would hold (most of them were 12 by 16) would celebrate. Their observation of the day was deeply religious. They sang the old hymns, then songs of the home lands, songs that brought back memories of fjords and hills, the days of their youth, spent in a land they would never see again. There would be a modest lunch; bread and butter and a little fish or meat

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and coffee. Grace was said before the humble repast by one of the elders. How earnestly these sturdy pioneers prayed. They had brought their families thousands of miles to a land of "milk and honey" which in the grasshopper days was turned to a desert. They had need of faith and they had it. When the party was over they would start for their homes under the bright starlight, their hope and faith in God and their new homes renewed.

        There were no gaudily decorated Christmas trees, no popcorn, no candy of any kind, no Christmas program and no Santa Claus.


SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENT
        The first few years the only social intercourse the settlers had was visiting their neighbors and then as more settlers came in there came family parties, where they played "Come Down this Way with Your Early Wheat" and "King William was King George's son," etc. Then there were also the games with forfeits and even the old postoffice game was a favorite with the youngsters. But these parties were few and far between as a majority of the homes had just room enough for the family.

        With the influx of the settlers, came the dances, the old squares and waltzes. The old square dance was always a favorite. Johnny Soules, a dark picturesque looking man with a black goatee, played the fiddle (there were no violins in those days). The rain water barrel had been emptied and upended and Johnny sat on top playing the music, keeping time with his big left toe, calling the changes with a big hunk of chewing tobacco in his mouth, and every once in a while when the dancers were mixed up in a new fangled change, John would come down from his lofty perch and straighten them out.

        The dancers and fiddler stopped at midnight for a lunch and then on with the dance until the sun came peeping over the hills to the east. Money was no handicap to the young men as many of them brought muskrat pelts under their coats which were passed over to Johnny for their dance ticket.

        The first sit down strike on record took place on the Ingal place, two miles north of the Leeds township line. The Ingals

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