om which to survey the surrounding world.
There is a briskness of atmosphere on a hilltop which is inspiriting to
the most jaded of faculties; there is a sparkling vitality in the breath
of the morning air which must ever make life a joy and the world seem an
inexpressible delight in which it is the acme of happiness to dwell.

The exigencies of prairie life demand the habit of early rising, and
more often does the tiny human atom, which claims for its home the vast
tracts of natural pasture, gaze upon the sloth of the orb of day than
does that glorious sphere smile down upon a sleeping world.

Far as the eye can reach stretch the mighty wastes of waving grass--the
undulating plains of ravishing verdure. What breadth of thought must
thus be inspired in one who gazes out across the boundless expanse at
the glories of a perfect sunrise? How insignificant becomes the petty
affairs of man when gazing upon the majesty of God's handiwork. How
utterly inconceivable becomes the association of evil with such
transcendently beautiful creation? Surely no evil was intended to lurk
in the shadow of so much simple splendor.

And yet does the ghastly specter of crime haunt the perfect plains, the
majestic valleys, the noiseless, inspiring pine woods, the glistening,
snow-capped hills. And so it must remain as long as the battle of life
continues undecided--so long as the struggle for existence endures.

The Hon. Bunning-Ford rose while yet the daylight was struggling to
overcome the shades of night. He stood upon the tiny veranda which
fronted his minute house, smoking his early morning cigarette. He was
waiting for his coffee--that stimulating beverage which few who have
lived in the wilds of the West can do without--and idly luxuriating in
the wondrous charm of scene which was spread out before him. "Lord" Bill
was not a man of great poetic mind, but he appreciated his adopted
country--"God's country," as he was wont to call it--as can only those
who have lived in it. The prairie had become part of his very existence,
and he loved to contemplate the varying lights and colors which moved
athwart the fresh spring-clad plains as the sun rose above the eastern
horizon.

The air was chill, but withal invigorating, as he watched the steely
blue of the daylit sky slowly give place to the rosy tint of sunrise.
Slowly at first--then faster--great waves of golden light seemed to leap
from the top of one green rising ground to another; the