.

Asher Aydelot had come here with half a dozen other young fellows, all of
whom took up claims along Grass River. Six months later Jim Shirley had
come to the settlement with a like company who extended the free-holdings
until it was seven miles by the winding of the river from Aydelot's claim
on the northwest down the river to Shirley's claim on the southeast.

Eighteen months later only two men were left in the Grass River valley,
Aydelot and Shirley. The shorter trail as the crow flies between their
claims was marked by a golden thread of sunflowers. At the third bend of
the winding stream a gentle ripple of ground rose high enough to hide the
cabin lights from each other that otherwise might have given a neighborly
comfort to the two lone settlers.

Shirley's cabin stood on a tiny swell of ground, mark of a one-time
island, set in a wide bend in the river that was itself a natural
fireguard for most of the circle of the premises.

The house was snug as a squirrel's nest. Before it was a strip of white
clover, as green and fresh looking as if it were on the banks of Clover
Creek in Ohio. Above the door a plain board bore the one word,
"Cloverdale."

Jim Shirley stood watching Asher coming down the trail against the wind,
followed by the big shepherd dog, Pilot, who had bounded off to meet him.

"Hello! How did you get away on a day like this?" he called, as the team
drew near.

"Why, you old granny!" Asher stopped here.

Both men had been on the Kansas plains long enough not to mind the wind.
It flashed into Asher's mind that Jim was hoping to see his wife with him,
and he measured anew the loneliness of the man's life.

"Most too rude for ladies just yet, although I didn't like to leave
Virginia alone."

"What could possibly harm her? Your fireguard's done, double done; there's
no water to drown in, no Indian to frighten, no wild beast to enter, no
white man, in God knows how many hundred miles. Just nothing to be afraid
of."

"Yes, that's it--just nothing. And it's enough to make even a braver woman
afraid. It's the eternal vast nothingness, when the very silence cries out
at you. It's the awful loneliness of the plains that makes the advance
attack in this fight with the wilderness. Don't we both know that?"

"I reckon we do, but we got over it, and so will Mrs. Aydelot."

"How do you know that?" Asher inquired eagerly. "I believe she could
hardly keep back the tears till I got away."

"Then why