more placid than mine,
broke in, abruptly:

"I don't blame Leslie for feeling so, father. Only think, we've been
on this place nearly five years, and we've never yet raised a crop,
because Mr. Horton's cattle, no matter where they may be ranging,
always get up here just in time--the right time--to do the most
damage. The other neighbors' cattle hardly ever stray into our
fields, and when they do the neighbors are good about it. Think of the
time when Mr. Rollins's herd got into the corn field and ate the corn
rows down, one after another. Mr. Rollins came after them himself, and
paid the damage, without a word of complaint. Besides, he said that it
shouldn't happen again; and it didn't. When has Mr. Horton ever done a
thing like that?"

"He's been kept busy other ways," father said, and his voice had none
of the resentment that Jessie's expressed. "The last time that his
cattle got in here I went to see him about it, and he said that the
field was a part of the range, being unfenced, and that any lawyer in
the United States would sustain him in saying so. He was quite right,
too--only he was not neighborly."

"Neighborly! I should say not," Jessie exclaimed, with a lowering
brow. "His horses have trampled down our garden and girdled all our
fruit trees, even to the Seckel pear that mother brought from
grandfather's."

"I know; it is very trying," father said, stifling a sigh; "but it can
do no good to dwell on these things, daughter. An enemy of any kind
does you more injury when he destroys your peace of mind, and causes
you to harbor revengeful feelings, than he can possibly achieve in any
other way. We must keep up our courage, and make the best of present
circumstances, bad as they sometimes are. A change is bound to come."

"Me wants more breakfuss," Ralph broke in, suddenly, extending his
empty milk-cup toward me, his chief servitor. I refilled it from the
pitcher beside me, and as I absently crumbled bits of bread into it I
sought enlightenment. "I never quite understood, father, why Mr.
Horton is so spiteful toward us."

"It is easily understood, Leslie. He wants this homestead claim, and
hopes to weary us into giving it up."

"He can find plenty of other claims," I argued.

"Yes; but not such as this. This is an upper valley, as you know, and
just above our claim five mountain streams join the main river as the
fingers of a hand join the palm, the main river being the palm. Every
square foot of our