ren play never dreaming of fear; where
sweet-browed mothers think not of loneliness and anguish and peril--all
these are the splendid heritage of a land whose law is for the whole
people, a land whose God is the Lord.

Slowly, through tribulation, and distress, and persecution, and famine,
and nakedness, and peril, and sword; through fire and flood; through
summer's drought and winter's blizzard; through loneliness, and fear,
and heroism, and martyrdom too often at last, the brave-hearted,
liberty-loving, indomitable people have come into their own, paying foot
by foot, the price that won this prairie kingdom in the heart of the
West.

Down through the years of busy cares, of struggle and achievement, of
hopes deferred and victories counted, my days have run in shadow and
sunshine, with more of practical fact than of poetic dreaming. And
through them all, the call of the prairie has sounded in my soul, the
voice of a beautiful land, singing evermore its old, old song of victory
and peace. Aye, and through it all, beside me, cheering each step,
holding fast my hand, making life always fine and beautiful and gracious
for me, has been my loved one, Marjie, the bride of my young manhood,
the mother of my sons and daughters, the light of my life.

It is for such as she, for homes her kind have made, that men have
fought and dared and died, fulfilling the high privilege of the American
citizen, the privilege to safeguard the hearthstones of the land above
which the flag floats a symbol of light and law and love.

And I who write this know--for I have learned in the years whose story
is here only a half-told thing under my halting pen--I know that however
fiercely the storms may beat, however wildly the tempests may blow,
however bitter the fighting hours of the day may be, beyond the heat
and burden of it all will come the quiet eventide for me, and for all
the sons and daughters of this prairie land I love. Though the roar of
battle fill all the noontime, in the blessed twilight will come the
music of "_HOME, SWEET HOME_."

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PRICE OF THE PRAIRIE***

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