going out to inspect my royal demesne," she cried, gaily.

"Not to-day. I want you to spend the day with me, and you don't know the
road. You haven't any way to go. York will be home soon. He wants to
take you there himself. He understands land values, and, anyhow, you
oughtn't go alone," Laura Macpherson said, emphatically.

"That is just what Mr. Ponk said at the garage, but I want to go alone."

That "I want" settled everything with Jerry Swaim in the Kansas New Eden
as in the old "Eden" in the green valley of the Winnowoc.

"I have hired a runabout of Mr. Ponk. He gave me directions so I can't
miss the way. Good-by."

The trail down the Sage Brush was full of delight this morning for the
young Eastern girl who sent her car swiftly along the level road, almost
forgetting the landmarks of the way in the exhilaration of youth and
June-time. And, however out of place she might seem on the Western
prairie, no one could doubt her ability to handle a car.

"'Where the stream bends sharp to the east away from a ranch-house,'"
Jerry was quoting Ponk. "I'm sure I can't miss it if I follow his
directions and the stream and bend and house and cottonwood-trees and
oak-grove are really there. I love oaks and I hope my woodland is full
of them. There must be a woodland on my farm, even if the trees are few
and small and scattered here, so far as I have seen. But there was
really something pitiful in the little man's eyes when he was talking to
me. Maybe he is a wee bit envious of my possessions. Some men are
jealous of women who have property. No doubt my workmen will need
managing, and some adjusting to a new head of affairs. I'll be very
considerate with them, but they must respect my authority. I wish Gene
was with me this morning."

Then she fell to musing.

"I wonder what message Gene will send me, and whether he will write it
himself, or, as he suggested, will send it through Aunt Jerry's letters
to York. It was his original way of doing to say I'd find things out
through Aunt Jerry, when she probably won't write me a line for a long
time. I know Gene will choose nobly, and I know everything will turn out
all right at last.... I wonder if my place is as beautiful as this. How
I wish Gene could see it with his artist eyes."

Jerry brought her engine down to slow speed as she passed a thrifty
ranch-house where barns and clustering silos, and fields of grain and
cattle-dotted prairies outlying all, betokened the possi