or locality. Nor had
the harshness of the wilderness made harsh the soft Southern tongue that
was her heritage.

At Stewart's words, Asher glanced at his wife, and he knew from her eyes
what her choice would be.

"When I was a boy on the old farm back at Cloverdale, Ohio, my mother's
advice was as useful to me as my father's." Swift through Asher's mind ran
the memory of that moonlit April night on his father's veranda five years
before. "Out here it is our wives who bear the heaviest burdens. Let us
have their thoughts on the situation."

"That's right," Jim Shirley exclaimed. "Mrs. Aydelot, you are first in
point of time in this settlement. What do you say?"

"It's a big responsibility, Mrs. Aydelot," Bennington, who had not smiled
hitherto, said with a twinkle in his eye.

"As goes Asher Aydelot, so goes Grass River," Todd Stewart declared. "You
speak for him, Mrs. Aydelot, and tell us what to do."

"I cannot tell _you_ what to do. I can speak only for the Aydelots,"
Virginia said. "When we came West Asher told me he had left one bridge not
burned. He had put aside enough money to take us back to Ohio and to start
a new life, on small dimensions, of course, back East, whenever we found
the prairies too hostile. They've often been rough, never worse than now,
but"--her eyes were bright with the unconquerable will to do as she
pleased, true heritage of the Thaines of old--"but I'm not ready to go
yet."

Jim Shirley clapped his hands, but Pryor Gaines spoke earnestly. "There is
no failure in a land where the women will to win. By them the hearthstones
stand or crumble to dust. The Plains are master now. They must be servant
some day."

"Amen!" responded Asher Aydelot, and the Sabbath service ended.

Two weeks later Darley Champers came again to the barren valley and met
the settlers in the sod schoolhouse. Not a cloud had yet scarred the
heavens, not a dewdrop had glistened in the morning sunlight. Clearly,
August was outranking July as king of a season of glaring light and
withering heat. The settlers drooped listlessly on the backless seats, and
the barefoot children did not even try to recite the golden text.

"I'd like to speak to you, Aydelot," Champers said at the door, as the
school service ended.

The two men sought the shady side of the cabin and dropped on the ground.

"I'm goin' to be plain, now, and you mustn't misunderstand me for a
minute," Champers declared. The blusterer is rarely tactful.