In
summertime they fed upon vegetation, and at other seasons on acorns,
roots, bugs, and grubs. Acorns, particularly, were good and fattening
feed. They ate cedar and juniper berries, and pinyon nuts. And therefore
they lived off the land, at little or no expense to the owner. The
only loss was from beasts and birds of prey. Glenn showed Carley how
a profitable business could soon be established. He meant to fence off
side canyons and to segregate droves of his hogs, and to raise abundance
of corn for winter feed. At that time there was a splendid market
for hogs, a condition Hutter claimed would continue indefinitely in
a growing country. In conclusion Glenn eloquently told how in his
necessity he had accepted gratefully the humblest of labors, to find in
the hard pursuit of it a rejuvenation of body and mind, and a promise of
independence and prosperity.

When he had finished, and excused himself to go repair a weak place in
the corral fence, Carley sat silent, wrapped in strange meditation.

Whither had faded the vulgarity and ignominy she had attached to Glenn's
raising of hogs? Gone--like other miasmas of her narrow mind! Partly she
understood him now. She shirked consideration of his sacrifice to his
country. That must wait. But she thought of his work, and the more she
thought the less she wondered.

First he had labored with his hands. What infinite meaning lay unfolding
to her vision! Somewhere out of it all came the conception that man was
intended to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. But there was more
to it than that. By that toil and sweat, by the friction of horny palms,
by the expansion and contraction of muscle, by the acceleration of
blood, something great and enduring, something physical and spiritual,
came to a man. She understood then why she would have wanted to
surrender herself to a man made manly by toil; she understood how a
woman instinctively leaned toward the protection of a man who had used
his hands--who had strength and red blood and virility who could fight
like the progenitors of the race. Any toil was splendid that served this
end for any man. It all went back to the survival of the fittest.
And suddenly Carley thought of Morrison. He could dance and dangle
attendance upon her, and amuse her--but how would he have acquitted
himself in a moment of peril? She had her doubts. Most assuredly he
could not have beaten down for her a ruffian like Haze Ruff. What then
should be the si