But all of northeastern Montana is hard country--the land is dry and sparse and the wind never stops blowing.  The heat and thunderstorms in summer can be brutal, and the winters are legendary for the fierceness of their blizzards and the depths to which temperatures drop.  Mercer County is plains, flat as a tabletop on its western edge and riven with gullies, ravines, and low rocky hills to the east because of the work the Knife River has done over the centuries
	Marie was neither small nor shy.  She loved to laugh and talk, and she was a great tease, specializing in outrageous lies about everything from strange animal behavior to bloody murders.  Then as soon as she saw she had you gulled, she would say, "Not so, not so!"
	When I made a fuss and my mother sided with me, my father said, "He wears those and soon he'll be as flat-footed and lazy as and Indian."
	"I love the wind," she said, tilting her head up to catch as much of it on her face as she could.  "It reminds me of North Dakota.  My goodness, how Dad used to curse the wind, 'Carrying away the topsoil,' he'd say. 'Giving it to South Dakota.'  But I always loved it, that feel of rushing air, bringing something new, was the way I felt."