a
thousand miles north and south, covered with buffalo grass, especially
toward the north, that made good stock feed the year around. He himself
had, in winter, followed a herd that drifted from Montana to Texas; and
in summer he had twice ranged from Corpus Christi to Deadwood.

Down in the Panhandle they were getting control of a ranch that would
cover five thousand square miles. Some day they would have every one of
its three million acres enclosed with a stout wire fence. It would be a
big ranch, bigger than the whole state of Connecticut--bigger than
Delaware and Rhode Island "lumped together", he had been told. Here they
would have the "C lazy C" brand on probably a hundred and fifty
thousand head of cattle. He thought the business would settle down to
this conservative basis with the loose ends of it pulled together; with
closer attention paid to branding, for one thing; branding the calves,
so they would no longer have to rope a full-grown steer, and tie it with
a scarf such as he wore about his waist.

But they were also working some placer claims up around Helena, and
developing a quartz prospect over at Carson City. And the freighting was
by no means "played out." He, himself, had driven a six-mule team with
one line over the Santa Fe trail, and might have to do it again. The
resources of the West were not exhausted, whatever they might say. A man
with a head on him would be able to make a good living there for some
years to come.

Both father and daughter found him an agreeable young man in spite of
his being an alien from the Commonwealth of Israel. He remained with
them three days looking over the country about Amalon, talking with its
people and making himself at least not an object of suspicion and
aversion, as the casual Gentile was apt to be. Prudence found herself
usually at ease with him; he was so wholly likable and unassuming. Yet
at times he seemed strangely mature and reserved to her, so that she was
just a little awed.

He told her in their evenings many wonder-tales of that outside world
where the wicked Gentiles lived; of populous cities on the western edge
of it, and of vast throngs that crowded the interior clear over to the
Atlantic Ocean. She had never realised before what a small handful of
people the Lord had set His hand to save, and what vast numbers He had
made with hearts that should be hardened to the glorious articles of the
new covenant.

The wastefulness of it rather appal