e plains were astir with settlers rushing in the direction of the
explosion. A great rumbling force was sending steam high into the air.
It was Ben Smith's Folly. He had struck gas--enough to pipe house and
barns for light and fuel!

Then came a heaving, belching from far down in the earth's cavern. And
up came the water--a great stream of it that ran over the dry hot
ground! Water overflowing. That artesian well, flowing day and night,
would save the people and stock until it rained.

And with the flowing of fresh, cool water on the Lower Brule, life began
to flow through my veins once more, and I got up, ready for what was to
come.

[Illustration]

XVI

FALLOWED LAND

So it happened that only a few weeks before proving-up time, Ida Mary
and I had to start all over again. But with the coming of water into
that thirsty land it didn't seem so difficult to begin again. And we
weren't doing it alone. It was the settlers who built a new shack, a new
building for a printing press; the settlers who clothed us during those
first destitute days. "This is cooperation," they laughed at our
protests. "_The Wand_ has always preached cooperation."

In the cool of the evening I rode out over the devastated prairie, past
the charred timbers and ashes of my claim, across the scorched and
stunted fields blighted by drought, avoiding the great cracks which had
opened in the dry earth and lay gaping like thirsty mouths for rain.
The crops were burnt, and the land which had seemed so fertile looked
bleak and sterile.

I rode through the reservation gate. There was no one at home at Huey
Dunn's, but his little field of shocked grain lay there in the midst of
burnt grass and unharvested fields. Instead of dry chaff there were
hard, fairly well-filled heads. It had withstood the drought
sufficiently to mature. In an average year it would have yielded a good
crop.

On his claim near the reservation a young man was doing quite a bit of
experimenting. He was a graduate of an agricultural school. I looked at
his fields, which also had come through the drought much better than
others. From other farmers scattered here and there who had tried the
fallowing plan I got records of methods and results. Then I rode back
slowly, thinking of what might be done for the Brule country.

Drinking water supply could be obtained. The next most vital problem was
moisture for the crops. Most of the rainfall came in the growing season,
but in