ore-room,
and the men filed out, all but Burke, who remained to put up the calico
curtain with which his wife had planned to shield her bed.

Blanche was a little disturbed at the prospect of sleeping behind such a
thin barrier.

"Oh, it's no worse than the sleeping-car," her husband argued.

A little later he stuck his head in at the store-room door. "All ready,
Bailey."

Bailey was to sleep on the rickety lounge, which served as bedstead and
chair, and the other men were to make down as best they could in the
grocery.

Bailey went out to the front of the shanty to look at the lantern he had
set up on a scantling. Rivers followed him.

"Going to leave that up there all night?"

"Yes. May keep some poor devil from wandering around all night on the
prairie."

Rivers said, with an abrupt change in his voice:

"Mrs. Burke is a hummer, isn't she? How'd his flat-chested nibs manage
to secure a 'queen' like that? I must get married, Bailey--no use."

Bailey took his friend's declaration more lightly than it deserved. He
laughed. "Wish you would, Jim, and relieve me of the cookin'."

Blanche could hardly compose herself to sleep. "Isn't it wonderful," she
whispered. "It's all so strange, like being out of the world, someway."

Burke heard the ducks quacking down in the "Moggason," and he, too,
_felt_ the silence and immensity of the plain outside. It was enormous,
incredible in its wildness. "I believe we're going to like it out here,
Blanche," he said.

Blanche Burke rose to a beautiful and busy day. The breakfast which she
cooked in the early dawn was savory, and Rivers, who helped her by
bringing water and building the fire, was full of life and humor. He
seemed to have no other business than to "wait and tend" on her.

He called her out to see the sunrise. "Isn't this great!" he called,
exultantly. Flights of geese were passing, and the noise of ducks came
to them from every direction. He pointed out the distant hills, and
called her attention to a solemn row of sand-hill cranes down by the
swale, causing her to see the wonder and beauty of this new world.

"You're going to like it out here," he said, with conviction. "It is a
glorious climate, and you'll soon have more neighbors than you want."

After breakfast Bailey and Burke left the "Moggason Ranch"--as Bailey
called the store and shanty--to carry the lumber and furniture belonging
to Burke on to his claim, two or three miles away. Rivers remained t