Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1918-05-09
CHAPTER XII.
Four Walls and a Roof.

the Kappan range pleasant enough
place She could not deny it's beauty.
| But she was far too trail weary to ap-
preci"'e the grandeur of the Klappan
range. : She desired nothing so much
as rest and comfort, and the solemn
| mountains were neither restful nor
soothing. They stood too grim and
| a1oof in lonely land.
There was so much to be done, work
of the hands; a cabin to build. and a
stable; hay to be cut and stacked so
that their horses might live through
the long winter-which already her
| aided his approach with sharp, sting
ing frosts at night, and furries of
snow along. the higher ridges.
Bill staked the tent beside the
spring, fashioned rude fork out of
a pronged willow, and fitted a handle
to the scythe he had brought for the
purpose. From dawn to dark he swung
the keen blade in the heavy grass
which carpeted the bottom. Behind
him Hazel piled it in little mounds
with fork. She insisted on this,
though 1T blistered her hands and
brought furious pains to her back. If
her man must strain every nerve she
would tighten the burden with what
strength she had. And with two pair
of hands to the task, the piles of hay
gathered thick on the meadow. When
Bill judged that the supply reached
twenty tons. he built rude sled with
rack on it, and hauled in the hay
with saddle horse.
"Amen!" said Bill, when he had emp
tied the rack for the last time, and
the hay rose in a neat stack That's
another load off my mind. can build
cabin and a stable In six feet of
snow if I have to, but there would
have been a slim chance of haying once
storm hit us. We wouldn't go hun
gry-there's moose enough to feed an
army ranging in that low ground to the
SOUTH
There's everything that one needs,
almost, in the wilderness, isn't there ?''
Hazel observed refiectively. 'But still
the law of life is awfully harsh don't
you think, Bill. Isolation is a terrible
thing when it is so absolutely COM
plete. Suppose something went wrong?
There's no help, and no mercy-abso-
lutely nome Nature, when you get
close to her, is so inexorable."
Bill eyed her a second Then he put
his arms around her, and patted her
hair tenderly.
rs 1T getting on your nerves already,
little person?" he asked. "Nothing's
going to go wrong. I've been in wild
country too often to make mistakes or
get careless. Life isn't bit harsher
here than in the human ant heaps,
What does the old, settled country do
to you when you have neither money
nor job? 1t treats you worse than the
worst the North can do; for, lacking
the price, it denies you access to the
abundance that mocks you in every
shop window, and bars you out of the
houses that line the streets. Here.
everything needful is yours for the TAX
ing. No, little person, / don't think
the law of life is nearly so harsh here
as it is where the mob struggles for its
daily bread. It's more open and
aboveboard here; more up to the indi-
vidual. But it's lonely sometimes.
guess that's what ails you.''
"Oh, pouf!' she denied. I'm NOT
lonely, so long as I've got you. But
sometimes I think of something hap
pening to you-sickness and accidents.
and all that"
"Forget iti' Bill exhorted. saThat,s
the worst of living in this big, still
country-it makes one interpretive.
and SO confoundedly conscious of what
puny atoms we human beings are
after all. But there's less chance of
sickness here than any place. WHIT
till I get that cabin built, with a big
fireplace at one end. Wen be more
comfortable, and things will look
little roster. This thing of everlasting
hurry and hard work gets on eyerv-
body's nerves."
The best of the afternoon was still
.unspent when the haystackfng termi-
mated, and Bill declared a holiday.
When the fire had sunk to dull en-
bers, and the stars were peeping shyly
in the open flap of their tent, she whis-
pered in his ear:
"You mustn't think I'm complaining
or lonesome or anything, Billy-boy.
when make remarks like I did TODAY.
love you n heap, and I'd be happy
anywhere with you. And I'm really
and truly at home in the wilderness.
Only-only sometimes / have a funny
feeling as If I were afraid. look up
at these big mountains. and they seem
to be scowlfng-as il we were tres
passers or something"
st know" Bill drew her close to
him. But that's just mood. I've felt
that same sensation up here-a foolish.
fndefinable foreboding. All the out
of-the-way places of the earth produce
that effect, if one is Mt all Imaginative
It's the bigness of everything. and the
eternal stiffness 1t would be hard ON