dge Thayer indorsed him,
with enthusiasm. "I believe you've brought the light of a new epoch into
this country, I believe you're carrying the key that's going to unlock
these prairies and liberate the gold under the grass roots."

"It may be nothing but a dream," said Morgan softly, his eyes fixed on
the blue distances through the open door. "Maybe it will break me and
scatter my bones on the prairie for that old scavenger of men to haul
away."

Judge Thayer shook his head in denial of this possibility, making note
of this rugged dreamer's strong face, strong arms, large, capable hands.

"We're not away out West, as most people seem to think," he said, "only
a little past the middle of the state. My observation through several
years here has been that it rains about as much and as often in this
part of the country as it does in the eastern part of the state, enough
to make two crops in three, anyway, and that's as good as you can count
on without irrigation anywhere."

Morgan agreed with a nod. Judge Thayer went on, "The trouble is, this
prairie sheds water like the roof of a house, shoots it off so quick
into the draws and creeks it never has a chance to soak in. Plow it, I
tell 'em, and keep on plowin' it, in season and out; fix it so it can
soak up the rain and hold it. Is that right?"

"You've got the key to it yourself," Morgan told him, not a little
surprised to hear this uncredited missionary preaching the very doctrine
that men of Morgan's profession had found so hard to make converts to in
the prairie country.

"But it will be two or three years, at least, before you can begin your
experiment with wheat," Judge Thayer regretted. "By that time I'm afraid
the settlers that are taking up land around here now will be broken and
discouraged, gone to spread the curse against Kansas in the same old
bitterness of heart."

"I hope to find a piece of land that somebody has abandoned or wants to
sell, that has been farmed a year or two," Morgan confided. "If I can
get hold of such a place I'll be able to put in a piece of wheat this
fall--even a few acres will start me going. I could enlarge my fields
with my experience."

Judge Thayer said he believed he had the very place Morgan was looking
for, listed for sale. But there were so many of them listed for sale,
the owners gone, their equities long since eaten up by unpaid taxes,
that it took the judge a good while to find the particulars in this
special case.