asculine control. The
new ranch-house was completed, and though it was not large it was
vastly more homelike than any other cabin on the river with the
possible exception of the Eatons'. It stood in an open flat, facing
north, with a long butte behind it; and before it, beyond a wide
semi-circle of cottonwoods that marked the river's course, low hills,
now gray and now green, stretching away to the horizon. It was a
curiously Scotch landscape, especially at dusk or in misty weather,
which was no doubt a reason why Gregor Lang had chosen it for his
home.

Mrs. Lang proved to be a woman of evident character and ability. She
was well along in the forties, but in her stately bearing and the
magnificent abundance of her golden hair, that had no strand of gray
in it, lay more than a hint of the beauty that was said to have been
hers in her youth. There was wistfulness in the delicate but firm
mouth and chin; there was vigor in the broad forehead and the
well-proportioned nose; and humor in the shrewd, quiet eyes set far
apart. She belonged to an old Border family, and had lived all her
life amid the almost perfect adjustments of well-to-do British society
of the middle class, where every cog was greased and every wheel was
ball-bearing. But she accepted the grating existence of the frontier
with something better than resignation, and set about promptly in a
wild and alien country to make a new house into a new home.

While Roosevelt was getting acquainted with the new-comers at Yule,
Sewall and Dow were also getting acquainted with many people and
things that were strange to them. They took two days for the ride from
the Maltese Cross to the site of the new ranch, for the river was high
and they were forced to take a roundabout trail over the prairie; the
cattle, moreover, could be driven only at a slow pace; but even
twenty-odd miles a day was more than a Maine backwoodsman enjoyed as
initiation in horsemanship. Dow was mounted on an excellent trained
horse, and being young and supple was able to do his share in spite of
his discomfort. But the mare that had been allotted to Sewall happened
also to be a tenderfoot, and they did not play a conspicuous role in
the progress of the cattle.

Captain Robins was not the sort to make allowances when there was work
to be done. He was a small, dark man with a half-inch beard almost
completely covering his face, a "seafaring man" who had got his
experience with cattle in South Amer