ome of a woman's needs. Gretta
Lauer patted Hazel's shoulder with a motherly hand, and bade her cheer
up.

"Home's the place for you, dear," she said smilingly. "You just come
right along with us. Your man will come quick enough when he gets
word. And we'll take good care of you in the meantime. La, I'm all
excited over it. It's the finest thing could happen for you both.
Take it from me, dearie. I know. We've had our troubles, Jake and I.
And, seeing I'm only six months short of being a graduate nurse, you
needn't fear. Well, well!"

"I'll need to have food hauled in," Hazel reflected. "And some things
I brought with me. I wish Bill were here. I'm afraid I'll be a lot of
bother. Won't you be heavily loaded, as it is?"

She recalled swiftly the odd, makeshift team that Lauer depended
on--the mule, lop-eared and solemn, "und Gretchen, der cow." She had
cash and drafts for over three thousand dollars on her person. She
wondered if it would offend the sturdy independence of these simple,
kindly neighbors, if she offered to supply a four-horse team and wagon
for their mutual use? But she had been forestalled there, she learned
in the next breath.

"Oh, bother nothing," Mrs. Lauer declared. "Why, we'd be ashamed if we
couldn't help a little. And far's the load goes, you ought to see the
four beautiful horses your husband let Jake have. You don't know how
much Jake appreciates it, nor what a fine man he thinks your husband
is. We needed horses so bad, and didn't have the money to buy. So Mr.
Wagstaff didn't say a thing but got the team for us, and Jake's paying
for them in clearing and plowing and making improvements on your land.
Honest, they could pull twice the load we'll have. There's a good
wagon road most of the way now. Quite a lot of settlers, too, as much
as fifty or sixty miles out. And we've got the finest garden you ever
saw. Vegetables enough to feed four families all winter. Oh, your old
cities! I never want to live in one again. Never a day have the
kiddies been sick. Suppose it is a bit out of the world? You're all
the more pleased when somebody does happen along. Folks is so
different in a new country like this. There's plenty for
everybody--and everybody helps, like neighbors ought to."

Lauer came up after a time, and Hazel found herself unequivocally in
their hands. With the matter of transporting herself and supplies thus
solved, she set out to find Felix Courvoiseur