own, and to have it some place where our livin' don't depend on a pay
envelope. Oh, a city's dreadful, I think, when your next meal almost
depends on your man holdin' his job. I've lived in town ever since I
was fifteen. I lost three babies in Milwaukee--hot weather, bad air,
bad milk, bad everything, unless you have plenty of money. Many a time
I've sat and cried, just from thinkin' how bad I wanted a little place
of our own, where there was grass and trees and a piece of ground for a
garden. And I knew we'd never be able to buy it. We couldn't get
ahead enough."

"Und so," her husband took up the tale, "I hear off diss country, vere
lant can be for noddings got. Und so we scrape und pinch und safe
nickels und dimes for fife year. Und here ve are. All der vay from
Visconsin in der vaigon, yes. Mit two mules. In Ashcroft I buy der
cow, so dot ve haf der fresh milk. Und dot iss lucky. For von mule
iss die on der road. So I am plow oop der lant und haul my vaigon mit
von mule und Gretchen, der cow."

Hazel had a momentary vision of unrelated hardships by the way, and she
wondered how the man could laugh and his wife smile over it. She knew
the stifling heat of narrow streets in mid-summer, and the hungry
longing for cool, green shade. She had seen something of a city's
poverty. But she knew also the privations of the trail. Two thousand
miles in a wagon! And at the journey's end only a rude cabin of
logs--and years of steady toil. Isolation in a huge and lonely land.
Yet these folk were happy. She wondered briefly if her own viewpoint
were possibly askew. She knew that she could not face such a prospect
except in utter rebellion. Not now. The bleak peaks of the Klappan
rose up before her mind's eye, the picture of five horses dead in the
snow, the wolves that snapped and snarled over their bones. She
shuddered. She was still pondering this when she and Bill dismounted
at home.

CHAPTER XXV

THE DOLLAR CHASERS

Granville took them to its bosom with a haste and earnestness that made
Hazel catch her breath. The Marshes took possession of them upon their
arrival, and they were no more than domiciled under the Marsh roof than
all her old friends flocked to call. Tactfully none so much as
mentioned Andrew Bush, nor the five-thousand-dollar legacy--the
disposition of which sum still perplexed that defunct gentleman's
worthy executors. And once more in a genial atmosphere Hazel concluded