nce on the
Brule in getting settlers to work together would be invaluable. The
field would be new--but the principles of cooperative effort were always
the same.

Upon learning that I was going on with the development work, Senator
Warren wrote a letter filled with encouragement and information, and
Senator Borah expressed his interest.

Wyoming exemplified all the romance, the color, the drama of the old
Wild West. It was noted as a land of cowboys, wild horses, and fearless
men. As a commonwealth it was invincible. It was one of the greatest
sheep and cattle kingdoms in the world, where stockmen grazed their
herds over government domain, lords of all they surveyed.

In the past the big cattle and sheep outfits had brooked no
interference. One of the worst stockmen-settler wars ever waged had been
fought in Wyoming against an invasion of homesteaders, a war that became
so bloody the government had to take a hand, calling out the National
Guards to settle it. It was this section of the range country that I was
to help fill with sodbreakers.

The force of progress made it safer now, with the government and public
sentiment back of the homestead movement. These stockman-settler wars,
however, were not yet a thing of the past, and despite the years of
western development that followed, they continued to break out every now
and then in remote range country. In self-preservation stockmen of
various sections were making it difficult for the homesteader, and it
was certain that colonies of them would not be welcomed with open arms.
I knew all this in a general way, of course, but I had no trepidation
over the undertaking. My only qualms were on the score of health. It is
a poor trail-breaker who cannot travel with strong people, and that was
a drawback I couldn't overcome. All I could do was hope for the best and
rely on my ability to catch up if I should have to fall behind. I took a
chance on it. I rode to Ida Mary's, and found her rocking and sewing and
humming to herself in her new home.

"I'm going to help colonize Wyoming," I told her bluntly.

She let her sewing fall to the floor and sat staring at me, standing
bold and defiant in the middle of the floor. But my voice broke and I
threw myself across her bed crying. It was my first venture without Ida
Mary.

She did not say now, as she had done on other occasions: "How can you
help colonize a raw range country? You couldn't manage it." Life had
done something to