e was already so well acquainted that every
detail, every low building and gnarled bit of wood, was tabulated
surely in his mind. The creak of the windmill presently came to his
ears as a familiar sound, but rasping and irritating on his strong
nerves as the croak of the elder Fate.

Franklin drove up to the great dugout which made the main building, in
front of which the soil had been worn bare and dusty by many hoofs.
The Halfway House was now a business enterprise of assured success.
Many signs of prosperity appeared to the eye accustomed to the crude
simplicity of the frontier. These immigrants from the far-off South,
incongruous and unfitted as they had seemed in this harsh new country,
had apparently blundered into a material success far beyond that of
their average neighbour. The first years, the hardest ones of their
struggle, were past, and the problem of existence was solved. In those
days one did not always concern himself about problems more intricate
and more distant.

Buford met him in the yard, and the two together busied themselves in
taking care of the team, the former apologizing that he still had no
servant for such work, "I did have a nigger here for a while," he said,
"but he turned out no account, and the first I knew he went off for a
cow-puncher down the trail. I'm mighty glad to see you again, captain,
for it looked as though you had forsaken us. It certainly is a comfort
to see a gentleman like yourself once in a while. We meet plenty of
cowmen and movers, decent folk enough, but they have a lack, sir, they
have a lack. I maintain, sir, that no gentleman can flourish without
that intelligent social intercourse with his kind which is as much a
part of his livin', sir, as the eatin' of his daily bread. Now, as I
was sayin' about General Lee, sir--but perhaps we would better go in
and join the ladies. They will be glad to see you, and later on we can
resume our discussion of the war. I am willing to admit, sir, that the
war is over, but I never did admit, and, sir, I contend yet, that Lee
was the greatest general that the world ever saw--far greater than
Grant, who was in command of resources infinitely superior. Now,
then--"

"Oh, uncle, uncle!" cried a voice behind him. "Have you begun the war
over again so soon? You might at least let Mr. Franklin get into the
house."

Mary Ellen stood at the door of the dugout, just clear of the front,
and upon the second step of the stair,