of husbandry.

On the different levels of that rugged country, men and women had
planted their tent-poles and their hopes. Unacquainted with its rigors,
they were unappalled by the hardships, which lay ahead of them, dimly
understood. For that early autumn weather was benignant, and the sun was
mellow on the hills.

Speculation had not turned out as profitable as those who had come to
practice it had expected. Outside of the anxiety of Jerry Boyle and
others to get possession of the apparently worthless piece of land upon
which Dr. Slavens had filed, there were no offers for the relinquishment
of homesteads. That being the case, a great many holders of low numbers
failed to file. They wanted, not homes, but something without much
endeavor, with little investment and no sweat. So they had passed on to
prey upon the thrifty somewhere else, leaving the land to those whose
hearts were hungry for it because it _was_ land, with the wide horizon
of freedom around it, and a place to make home.

And these turned themselves to bravely leveling with road-scrapers and
teams the hummocks where the sagebrush grew, bringing in surveyors to
strike the level for them in the river-shore, plotting ditches to carry
the water to their fields. Many of them would falter before the fight
was done; many would lose heart in the face of such great odds before
the green blessing of alfalfa should rise out of the sullen ground.

Many a widow was there, whose heart was buried in a grave back East, and
many a gray man, making his first independent start. Always the West has
held up its promise of freedom to men, and the hope of it has led them
farther than the hope of gold.

About midway between Meander and Comanche, Agnes Horton was located on
the land which Smith had selected for her. Smith had retired from
driving the stage and had established a sort of commercial center on his
homestead, where he had a store for supplying the settlers' needs. He
also had gone into the business of contracting to clear lands of
sagebrush and level them for irrigation, having had a large experience
in that work in other parts of the state.

Agnes had pitched her tent on the river-bank, in a pleasant spot where
there was plenty of grazing for her horse. Just across her line, and
only a few hundred yards up-stream, a family was encamped, putting up a
permanent home, making a reckless inroad among the cottonwoods which
grew along the river on their land. Across