Saje Beard’s half-hour commute to class is the envy of her four classmates at a one-room schoolhouse just south of here.

　　Most mornings, the third-grader makes the trek on Ruth the mule.

　　Saje, 9, is an old hand at maneuvering mules. She’s been doing it since she was in first grade. "I feel more safe with her riding a mule than having her ride in a car or on a bus," said her father, Marty Beard.

　　At the Manning School, about 15 miles south of the North Dakota capital, Saje "parks" Ruth by tying her with a bowline to a tree near swing sets and monkey bars. Ruth then gets some leather hobbles attached to her front legs, a routine Saje began after her other mule, Shirley, got loose and ran home from school last year.

　　Saje’s classmates, who are in kindergarten through fourth grade, help take off Ruth’s saddle and tack. It’s stored in the school’s cloakroom, next to basketballs and other playground equipment.

　　The five children then run to the school’s flagpole to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and sing the national anthem. The mule, named Ruth, prances and kicks up dirt as the children sing.

　　"It’s cool," Lucas Irving, 10, said of his classmate and her mode of transportation. "She’s cool."