labor. The unwatered soil laughs at the puny human beings,
and human need and human desire do not easily learn the lesson that only
by united effort, by community union on a grand scale, can conquest be
made against that array of nature's inexorable forces.

Across prairie uplands on the slopes of the Rockies are vast stretches
of level yellow soil where not a green speck is in sight in any
direction. The gray-hued buffalo grass spreads everywhere and not a
tree, rock or stone can be seen. In the widely separated farmsteads most
of the houses are of sod. The men are sheep herders: they start out
with a collie and supplies for a three months' trip. When they come back
they are startled at the sound of a human voice. Often on their return
they are disturbed in their mental balance. The solitude has not been
good for them. Many go insane.

The women remain in the sod house and work. In illness they have only
the midwife to rely upon. As a result they suffer from the effects of
unskilful treatment. They are all Eastern women, all homesteading; but
they never can save money enough to go back East. Hopeless of that, they
lose impetus and all life descends to a lower key.

In this dark picture, from which some of the deepest shadows have been
intentionally omitted, a definite region has been kept in view; but
there are other places out on the edge of things that are like or
similar to this. Such conditions require the heroism of martyrs. Noble
martyrdoms pay well but reckless waste of life does not. It cannot be
said that any daughters born under these conditions have one-tenth of
their rightful chance in life.

In other portions of the vast and but partially subdued West, conditions
may be trying but they are not hopeless. Here, as we have seen in former
chapters, life to the Country Girl may be buoyant and inspiring even
though the eight hour day of hard labor may stretch out to ten or twelve
or even fourteen hours. The rest is sweet, conscience is crystal-clear,
and "what one does is of consequence."

It is that ultimate possibility that lends zest to effort, the
"consequence" that inheres in the task. While the registry of cattle
brands in the local western newspaper always includes among its symbols
some three-ply hook or decimal fraction or swastika design that stands
for the ranch of an enterprising and successful woman, there is always a
suggested possibility to the mind of the young girl that lends fervor to
her