There was quite a movement in 1901 toward what was called the West End of St. Louis. Many fine homes were built on both sides of Lindell Boulevard, and Westmoreland and Portland Places were laid out. The Cabanne district became fashionable after the street was paved. Mr. Sproule built a large brick house on Lindell east of Lake Avenue. This made me happy because now my childhood friend, Mattie, was within walking distance again. Mr. Ben Clark built a handsome stone house in Portland Place and now my lifelong friend, Bessie Clark, was near me again. Emma Whitaker's father, my father's partner, built in Westmoreland Place. Edith Collins' father bought a large place on Page Avenue west of Belt. They had a lovely house there. Now Edith, Mattie Sproule, and I often rode horseback together. Edith also drove her smartly bobtailed horse in a trap when we went sketching together.

My sister Belle and brother Sank bought an attractive house on Cabanne near Union. Sank had a horse and trap that he kept at Marshall's livery stable on Delmar near Union. I rode Babe, the Norvells' horse, and drove her in their smart trap.

The summer after I had typhoid fever we had our first telephone, a Kinloch, that had to be wound by hand to get a number. Father called me one day to tell me that a young man, son of a banker friend from New York, was on his way out to see me. Father told me to order the trap and take the young man for a drive in Forest Park. I did this. My sailor hat was pinned tightly on my wig. The hat had a gray striped silk ribbon band similar to that on the straw hat of the young New Yorker. We looked very smart as we drove around the park. However, just as we were returning to Cabanne along Union Avenue, near the site of the Gatesworth Manor, the horse shied and reared. A gust of wind took off my hat and wig. When I got the horse under control I asked the astonished young man to please get down and get the hat and curly wig. My head was covered by a half inch of hair.

The big barn on Cabanne was two stories high with a wide overhanging roof. A winding stairway in a corner near the entrance led to the second floor. A room for the hired man, who was gardener, milkman, and a little of everything, was across from the stair. This room had two windows, a heating stove, and comfortable furniture for a man. Two bins held oats and feed for chickens, the horse, and two Jersey cows. The rest of the big second floor was for storage. One year when Claude had made friends with some of the neighbor girls, Hazel Carr, Barbara Blackman, Cornelia Scott, etc., he decided to have a barn dance. He got our cousins Guy and Clarence Gamble to come over to help wax the rough floor. (The Gambles had moved out from Lindell to Gambleton where Uncle David had built a large red brick house on the Gamble estate.)

On the ground floor of the barn were three stalls, one for the horse and two for the cows. A bin in the horse's stall was just below the big bin for oats. A hayloft was above the cows' stalls. A side door led to the lot where the animals could go for exercise. A door shut off the stable from the carriage house. A wide door opened out to the pasture and when the hired man hitched up Billie in the surrey he would drive down our gravel road to the street and tie him to a hitching post in front of our house.