Life on the South Dakota prairie went on and on and for the next six years Betty, her father Alfred, her mother Etta and the rest of the kids survived the drought that hung on like a sickness. There were spurts of rain just enough to keep the cistern wet. Help had finally come to some of the farming communities in the form of commodities. Once a month the Pearsons would pile in the old pickup truck and head for town to collect their issuance, peanut butter, cheese, canned meat, some flour and a little sugar. The sugar was especially prized and always saved for special occasions. Then there was a war being fought overseas, a war nobody worried too much about because the United States was staying neutral. That would change soon enough.

Betty continued to help her mother around the homestead, doing a lot of the cooking and cleaning. There was always the dust and no matter how hard Betty tried, it never went away.

Alfred had almost given up on planting any crops. They just seemed to wither and die but Etta was able to keep a small garden growing. She got tomatoes, onions, a few green beans and some peas. The birds were always after those along with the hoppers and beetles but she was diligent so she was able to gather a few vegetables. The chickens were essential to the family's wellbeing. Gathering eggs was critical every morning and a setting hen guaranteed chicks. The Roosters were more in danger as the lesser ones became food. That was just a hard fact of life. The old cow was bred and she gave them another calf, a female which was great since they were also the lifebread of the farm.

From somewhere out of the blue an old cat showed up, made her home in the barn and had kittens. Where she came from nobody knew but she was welcome as she kept the mouse population down. When the boys milked the cow, they would squirt a little milk at her and her babies. She was skinny but happy to have found a place to call her own.

Betty did not go to school regularly. She went when she felt good but she still dealt with epilepsy. Living in poverty was a fact of life for her but despite the drudgery of her everyday routine she was becoming a young lady. Like all young girls starting to grow up Betty had her dreams. Her thoughts went often to the pretty dresses pictured in the Ward's catalog which could be delivered by mail right to her door. She dreamed of fancy underwear made from real silk with matching camisoles and silk stockings held up by a garter belt. She wanted her own brush and comb and a mirror so she could put on a little powder and she loved the thought of having her own luscious, creamy tube of lipstick. She also hoped someday to have her own room, an impossibility with so many kids in the small frame house. But most of all she dreamed of a romantic love that always just ended with a kiss. Innocence never dreamed of more than that. And she thought about Lloyd.

Lloyd continued to work for Alfred to help feed and care for his old horse Scout. Lloyd saw Betty almost everyday but like so many shy boys, he kept his distance. They were polite to each other when the occasion arose but they did not speak of that time so long ago that threw them together. He didn't want to scare her away because he knew someday he would marry her even if she didn't want to admit it.

He was almost 18 and becoming very independent having long ago figured out how to move around his father. He did not see his mother again and only recently learned that she had moved cross country to California. She had taken the two girls and drove them in an old Model A. It was his understanding that she had remarried and changed her name. He wasn't sure how to get in touch with her but knew he would see her again someday.

He wanted to learn to play a guitar, that was his goal but first he had to get one. That was the hard part, saving enough to buy a new guitar. He knew he could become a singer, that was his goal.

He had his own dreams too, dreams of going to Nashville, wherever Nashville was, and being "discovered" and making so much money he would never have to worry or be hungry or go without things like shoes ever again and he would provide for Betty who would be his wife. His mother and sisters probably needed his help as did Alfred and Etta and the Brinks. Lloyd knew if he had money, he'd come back to the community and help all who needed it and that was just about everyone. He always figured he would buy a huge house in California, move his mother and sisters in to it along with Betty. These were the dreams of the children of the prairie.