"Except the deed," Billy corrected.

After a hasty breakfast, they started to explore, running the irregular
boundaries of the place and repeatedly crossing it from rail fence to
creek and back again. Seven springs they found along the foot of the
bench on the edge of the meadow.

"There's your water supply," Billy said. "Drain the meadow, work the
soil up, and with fertilizer and all that water you can grow crops the
year round. There must be five acres of it, an' I wouldn't trade it for
Mrs. Mortimer's."

They were standing in the old orchard, on the bench where they had
counted twenty-seven trees, neglected but of generous girth.

"And on top the bench, back of the house, we can grow berries." Saxon
paused, considering a new thought "If only Mrs. Mortimer would come up
and advise us!--Do you think she would, Billy?"

"Sure she would. It ain't more 'n four hours' run from San Jose. But
first we'll get our hooks into the place. Then you can write to her."

Sonoma Creek gave the long boundary to the little farm, two sides were
worm fenced, and the fourth side was Wild Water.

"Why, we'll have that beautiful man and woman for neighbors," Saxon
recollected. "Wild Water will be the dividing line between their place
and ours."

"It ain't ours yet," Billy commented. "Let's go and call on 'em. They'll
be able to tell us all about it."

"It's just as good as," she replied. "The big thing has been the
finding. And whoever owns it doesn't care much for it. It hasn't been
lived in for a long time. And--Oh, Billy--are you satisfied!"

"With every bit of it," he answered frankly, "as far as it goes. But the
trouble is, it don't go far enough."

The disappointment in her face spurred him to renunciation of his
particular dream.

"We'll buy it--that's settled," he said. "But outside the meadow, they's
so much woods that they's little pasture--not more 'n enough for a
couple of horses an' a cow. But I don't care. We can't have everything,
an' what they is is almighty good."

"Let us call it a starter," she consoled. "Later on we can add to
it--maybe the land alongside that runs up the Wild Water to the three
knolls we saw yesterday."

"Where I seen my horses pasturin'," he remembered, with a flash of eye.
"Why not? So much has come true since we hit the road, maybe that'll
come true, too.

"We'll work for it, Billy."

"We'll work like hell for it," he said grimly.

They passed through the rustic gate and al