ternoon we turned off on a trail known to Old, and rode a few
miles to where the Pine family had made its farm. We found the old man
and his tall sons inhabiting a large two-roomed cabin situated on a
flat. They had already surrounded a field with a fence made of split
pickets and rails, and were working away with the tireless energy of the
born axemen at enclosing still more. Their horses had been turned into
ploughing; and from somewhere or other they had procured a cock and a
dozen hens. Of these they were inordinately proud, and they took great
pains to herd them in every night away from wildcats and other beasts.
We stayed with them four days, and we had a fine time. Every man of them
was keenly interested in the development of the valley and the discovery
of its possibilities. We discussed apples, barley, peaches, apricots,
ditches, irrigation, beans, hogs, and a hundred kindred topics, to
Johnny's vast disgust. I had been raised on a New England farm; Yank had
experienced agricultural vicissitudes in the new country west of the
Alleghanies; and the Pines had scratched the surface of the earth in
many localities. But this was a new climate and a new soil to all of us;
and we had nothing to guide us. The subject was fascinating. Johnny was
frankly bored with it all, but managed to have a good time hunting for
the game with which the country abounded.

For a brief period Yank and I quite envied the lot of these pioneers who
had a settled stake in the country.

"I wish I could go in for this sort of thing," said Yank.

"Why don't you?" urged old man Pine. "There's a flat just above us."

"How did you get hold of this land?" I inquired curiously.

"Just took it".

"Doesn't it belong to anybody?"

"It's part of one of these big Greaser ranchos," said Pine impatiently.
"I made a good try to git to the bottom of it. One fellar says he owns
it, and will sell; then comes another that says _he_ owns it and
won't sell. And so on. They don't nohow use this country, except a few
cattle comes through once in a while. I got tired of monkeying with them
and I came out here and squatted. If I owe anybody anything, they got to
show me who it is. I don't believe none of them knows themselves who it
really belongs to."

"I'd hate to put a lot of work into a place, and then have to move out,"
said I doubtfully.

"I'd like to see anybody move me out!" observed old man Pine grimly.

Farther up in the hills they were putting t