and demands for a speech. He was a farmer
from Oklahoma, and instead of speaking, he felt in his pockets and held
up, with a rather sheepish smile, a rabbit's foot which he had brought
with him. Press agents stood by, waiting for the outcome. Daily
newspapers printed the official list of the winners as the numbers came
out, and all over the United States people waited for the announcement
of the Rosebud's Lucky Numbers. The Rosebud had been opened up and
swallowed by the advancing wave of people westward. But there was more
land!

Fred Farraday drove me home from Presho, weary to the bone, and content
to ride without speaking, listening to the steady clop-clop of the
horses over that quiet road on which we did not meet a human being. And
in my pocketbook $400, the proceeds from the sale of the postcards.
Something, as Ida Mary had predicted, had happened.

Ma Wagor came in from the store. "Land sakes," she exclaimed, "you musta
been through some confusement! You look like a ghost."

It didn't matter. "I have four hundred dollars. There will be another
hundred or so when the agents finish checking up on the card sales, and
I'll get a check from the News Service. It will pay the bills, and some
left over to help us through the winter. We've saved the claim."

After a pause I added, "The Lower Brule seems pretty small after the
Rosebud. I'd like to go over there to start a newspaper."

"No," said Ida Mary. "You can't do that. Your claim and your newspaper
and your job are here. After all, anyone can file on a claim. It's the
people who stay who build the country."

[Illustration]

X

THE HARVEST

I was pony-expressing the mail home one day when I saw a great eagle,
with wings spread, flying low and circling around as though ready to
swoop upon its prey. It was noon on a late fall day with no sight or
sound of life except that mammoth eagle craftily soaring. I turned off
the trail to follow its flight. It was the kind of day when one must
ride off the beaten trail, when the sun is warm, the air cool and
sparkling; even Lakota seemed like a stodgy animal riveted to the earth,
and the only proper motion was that of an eagle soaring.

Abruptly the eagle swooped down into the coulee out of sight and came up
a hundred yards or so in front of me, carrying with it a large bulky
object. At the same instant a shot rang out, the eagle fell, and its
bulky prey came down with a thud.

So intent was I upon the eagl