The Brewster School, also known as the Bouchie School, stood about twelve miles southwest of De Smet in an abandoned claim shanty whose thick boards had no battens, allowing snow to blow through. Inside were six seats with a desk, a large heating stove, a small blackboard, and a little table and chair for the teacher. Laura began teaching there during a winter term that lasted two months, the full length the district could afford at $20 a month. She was determined to complete the term because the money she earned would help send Mary to the College of the Blind in Iowa. The room's unbattened walls let streaks of sunshine through the cracks onto six homemade seats and desks down the middle of the room, while a square of boards nailed to the wall and painted black served as a blackboard, and a big stove glowed cherry red as the five scholars Laura had to teach stood around it, with two boys and one girl taller than she was.