ould have put up a
sign, "keep off the grass"; he could have built a fence or forbidden
any one to use his place as a short cut to town; he could have done
anything that goes with private ownership; but with him ownership was
not necessarily private. To a man with such large Texas views and
lifelong experience of "free grass," such carefulness of a mere twenty
acres would seem rather small, especially small as directed against
such neighbors. He was pleased to be numbered among them, and he acted
accordingly. If the minister's wife needed temporary pasturage for her
real shorthorn cow, just arrived from the North, he invited her to use
his place permanently; he rather liked to see cows around. If an
incoming herd of cattle wished to halt there they were welcome; it
reminded him of old times. If the whole surrounding country went
"cross-lots" over his land, there was no objection; what difference did
it make? And besides, it was the farmers and ranchmen who gave him
employment.

He would not sell any land, though. Right here was where he exercised
his private right. He liked things well enough as they were. But when
the proposition came up to purchase a small site for a school-house, he
presented them with a small piece off the corner, only asking that they
refrain from putting a fence around it. As this restriction was no
drawback to the community, they readily acceded to it; consequently the
children played ball or did whatever they pleased all over the place,
much to his entertainment. At recess the youngsters spent much of
their time around him, if he were at home, and though this interfered
considerably with his housework he did not mind the delay.

However difficult it might be to name his particular function in the
social organism, he had certainly made a place for himself; and it was
wonderful, as time went on, how large that place grew to be. Any
woman, when her husband is away from home, is likely to face situations
which make sudden call for a Man. In a neighborhood where husbands and
hired men were frequently away at the ranch, this state of affairs was
always breaking out somewhere, and Jonas, occupying his prominent
position as next door neighbor to everybody, and being naturally
adapted to act in that capacity, was always the Man. His very
geographical situation was sufficient to turn the mind towards him, but
the particular reason for that heliotropism on the part of his feminine
neighbors