n as the two were undressing by the light of
the kerosene lamp in Mrs. Gillis' spare room. Welborn seemed not
interested. He was soon in bed and snoring.

"Feathers, by golly," muttered Davy as he snuggled down deep in the
bed.

4

The Gillis menage was well managed. Mrs. Gillis saw to that. Jim, aged
fifty, slim of build, sinewy, even-tempered, quiet, willing, was the
farmer and handyman. Crops grew, orchards bloomed, vines bore a full
vintage, and bushes yielded because he made them do so. Without
splutter or fuss, he did his work, and liked to do it.

The teamwork of Mrs. Gillis was equally effective. One could not say
however that her work was done as quietly. Landy, the cow hand brother
was wont to say--not in her presence however--that "as a child, Alice
was sorta tongue-tied, and she has to ketch up somehow."

And Landy--well, Landy made his contributions. As a young cowboy,
Landy had had his fling. He came into the game as the cattle-sheep
wars were at their peak and he played it strenuously. But with it all,
Landy Spencer kept his moral slate fairly clean. Then as the sober
days of manhood came, and Landy witnessed the finish of the
improvident and foolish, he began to save and skimp. "Hit's the pore
house fer a cow hand," was his terse aphorism on the subject, and
Landy had never seen a "fitten" poor house.

Landy was working for the Crazy-Q outfit, at the time the government
proposed to open the Silver Falls Project. He looked it over and filed
on two of the homesteads. One for himself and one for James Gillis.
Then he went to Illinois where his younger sister and her husband were
share-cropping.

"Come out whar yu've got room, whar ye own it, whar you do it your
way. I'll pay freight on yer car to Laramie, and keep up the supplies
for three years. Then if you're not satisfied, I'll move ye back."

It was Landy too, that planned as to the cows and calves. He bought
purebred cows from the B-line folks, and sold them the big, weaned
calves. And in view of the fact that the calf sale in 1931 was larger
than Alice's big turkey sale to the dealers in Laramie by fully two
hundred dollars, Landy had a modicum of peace on finances. The Gillis
menage was well managed. It made money in a depression.

Davy was awakened by what he thought was gunfire. He bounded out of
bed and ran to the window. Day was breaking. In the dawnlight he saw
Welborn and Landy tinkering with the old model that had brought th