e to shed my blankets-I have always had a way of getting into intricate entanglements with the bed clothes-I filled my lungs with the fresh oxygen, thumped my chest with my fists, and,

n, wearing a blanket, Indian fashion, for lack of a bathrobe. A week on a dusty tra

swinging her arms, to the peril of her costume.

words. That's why Westerners are more optimistic-and more reckle

e!" as she took a great chestful of fresh air

land for a garden. Have you ever turned the first sod on a quarter section with a spade, and then stopped and looked over the vast expanse before you? It made me humble, but not discouraged. There is something almost sacramental in turning over the fresh sod of the prairies-sod which no plow,

the ripping of little grassy tendons to mark your time as, foot by foot, you throw the trenches of civilization one furrow farther west. By mid-afternoon I had spaded quite a sizable garden plot. Then I broke t

the railway station some thirty miles to the south, and the sound of his wagon rumbling along over the soft earth came floating back on the breeze as a sort of acco

e to one brow of the ravine, and that Jack should build his close to the other, so that each would command an unbroken view of his neighbour. Perhaps even then we had some premonit

"Let me see-reception-room, living-room, par

is anything you call it. We can change the name as we change the p

. So I sat down and drew a plan, while the girls watched over my shoulder

r between. The roof will be of two thicknesses of boards, bent to a gentle oval over a stout ridge-pole, and again with tarpaper between. You have no idea how much the West owes to tarpaper. Wherever the new settler goes, goes tarpaper. I would a

ean, who had a strain of delicacy in her th

population is not nearly so scarce on the prairies as it seems. He says that the inmates of one of these little ba

the kitchen as well-will be in the centre of the building. It will be fourteen feet square-like that. At the south end of the building, where the sun will shine in spring and flowers

ndows?" sai

e north for me, a window in the west for the l

ean trilled. "And is Jack's ho

tion by the feminine vote, but Jack and I talked it over with Jake, and we figu

"Then your window will look across the

nights, when the wind was whining dolefully about the gables, my light in my window might be-well, Jean might like to see it there. St

severely as I could, but Jean cut me short.

h a brownish-black loam that turned easily and threw clean from the shovel. Then I struck a sticky, yellow clay, and the going was much slower. But by the time we heard J

he inevitable tarpaper, and the next morning we were about to start constructi

old me in town yesterday that it w

of the Sabbath. It was not surprising that he should drop his burden where he stood, and

said, laying

endar is. This morning was exactly like the other mornings of the week; a burst of golden dawn, a sea of diamond dew-drops, a rollicking bre

begin to think we must have

ck admitted, contritely

work was discontinued, and we lounged about, trying to

home rise tier by tier from the bare bosom of the plain. There were no Union hours with us. We worked from early morning until after sunset, and laid down our tools at last with affectionate reluctance. We were stiff and sore in every joint and muscle; our hands were caloused a

dug a well; we plowed a small area on each farm and planted it to oats, and then we went on plowing for next season's crop; we bought a mowing-machine and rake-on credit-and cut an ample supply of wild prairie hay for our

pproach and to conjecture as to who or what it might be. The light on the prairies on a hot day has a way of shimmering that sometimes renders the outline of an object, or even its color, vague, although

of heroic size charging down upon us literally out of the heavens. As it approached the mirage lost its illusion and horse and rider came back to earth. By this time we were sure

rie. It could now be seen that the figure was approaching at a rapid gait, and its outline, no longer blurre

flanks, showed little sign of fatigue; the dust of travel clung to the rider's sunburned face, but the smartness of his

addressing Marjorie and Jea

, that he had spoken more particularly to Jean. "My brother, F

dinner. "I have not," he confessed, "but please don't go to any tro

right," the policeman continued, speaking to

of that prejudice through a little incident that happened when we reached the water. Although Brook was undoubtedly suffering from thirst he removed his horse's bit, so that he could drink in com

As I watched him parting his hair by the reflection in the water I realized that Brook had not forgotten what so many of we pioneers often did forget-th

g news about himself. At last he had escaped from barracks, temporarily, at any rate. He was detailed to two months' relief duty at a point farther west; he promised hi

rook introduced us, somewhat hesitatingly, to the alleged charms of Lady Nicotine. In short, we smoked rather less than half a cigarette each. It is one of the complexities of woman's nature which I did no

overnment that footed the bill, we allowed ourselves to be persuaded. Governments, like railways, are legitimate prey. Also, from somewhere, the policeman produced a small box of candy, which he presented impartially to Marjorie and Jean.

ng to have his mail sent out if there was any chance. It seems he had some local fame under the name of Spoof, and the clerk in th

ave heard of him. Jake, our land guide

y the quarter this morning. I suppose he's travelling by ox-team and will arrive some time later in the season. You'll see his sign up on Two when he gets here, and

th him, and the girls stood watching the scarle

in her eyes which, under any other circumstances, it would have been good to se

the impersonal noun. "They are a wonderful Force. They have a t

rjorie, who had a way of bursting in at inopportune moments

," Jean retorted. "Well, here's a welcome to a neighbour

n to the wagon, and went down en masse to call on Spoof. He saw us when we were yet afar off, and, when it was evident we were headed for his tent, he came

Won't you get down, ladies, and visit my farm-this is it, all around here-while we unh

spokesman, and introducing our little party

, once applied, sticks. So Spoof I am, to everybody, except the dear folks at home, who, of course, could never understand. When I wrote the Governor an

extending the little bundle. "Mr. Brook, the po

ful how they chase a beggar down, isn't it? They

which he used as a table, and dishes of inappropriately delicate china. There was a folding camp cot with steamer rugs. Quite a handsome shaving set was strapped to a wall of the tent, and a great cartridge belt with a prodigious revolver hung from a tent pole, while a rifle leaned against it. Spoof evidentl

ft in the spirit lamp. Sorry I can't offer you anything better." So he rattled on and made us feel very much at home, even while I found rising in my heart some yearning of sympathy for him. I recalled the incident about Jake and Spoof's sixty pounds,

untry when I took him to task about it afterwards. "They're jus' lik

a grace of manner which made Jack and me and even Marjorie a little ill at ease. We had an uncomfortable feeling of being out of our class, as one does when he listens to a conversation in which his limitations will allow him to take little part. Only Jean seemed to wholly enjoy it; she was talking with him about prairie

new what he was talking about the dialogue had again passed back to Jean. She seemed to have a grasp of things, of delicate, thoughtful, artistic things, far beyond any gift of ours. I was astonished and a bit terrified by the gulf which I now found spreading between her plane and mine. I had no

ing its mammoth shadows across the soft, warm prairies, and bearin