o
work in the store, and to meet some other land-seekers, and Mrs. Burke
agreed to stay and get dinner for them all.

During this long forenoon, Rivers exerted himself to prevent her from
being lonely. He was busy about the store, but he found time to keep her
fire going and to bring water and to tell her of his bachelor life with
Bailey. She had never had anything like this swift and smiling service,
and she felt very grateful to him. He encouraged her to make some pies
and to prepare a "thumping dinner." "It will seem like being married
again," he said, with a chuckle.

Burke and Bailey returned at noon to dinner.

"Mrs. Burke, you can sleep in your own ranch to-night," announced
Bailey.

"I guess it will be a ranch."

"It'll be new, anyhow," her husband said, with a timid smile.

After dinner she straightened things up a little, and as she got into
the wagon she said: "Well, there, Mr. Rivers. _You'll_ have to take care
o' things now."

Rivers leered comically, sighed, and looked at his partner. "Bailey, I
didn't know what we needed before; I know now. We need a woman."

Bailey smiled. "Go get one. Don't ask a clumsy old farmer like me to
provide a cook."

"I'll get married to-morrow," said Rivers, with a droll inflection. They
all laughed, and Burke clucked at the team. "Well, good-bye, boys; see
you later."

After leaving the ranch they struck out over the prairie where no
wagon-wheel but theirs had ever passed. Here were the buffalo trails,
deep-worn ruts all running from northwest to southeast. Here lay the
white bones of elk in shining crates, ghastly on the fire-blackened sod.
Beside the shallow pools, buffalo horns, in testimony of the tragic
past, lay scattered thickly. Everywhere could be seen the signs of the
swarming herds of bison which once swept to and fro from north to south
over the plain, all so silent and empty now.

A few antelope scurried away out of the path, and a wolf sitting on a
height gravely watched the teams as if marvelling at their coming. The
wind swept out of the west clear and cold. The sky held no shred of
cloud. The air was like some all-powerful intoxicant, and when Bailey
pointed out a row of little stakes and said, "There's the railroad,"
their imagination supplied the trains, the wheat, the houses, the towns
which were to come.

At the claim Blanche sat on a box and watched the two men as they
swiftly built the little cabin which was to be her home. Their hammers