The Kadoka press and Kadoka reporter. [volume] (Kadoka, S.D.) 1910-1923, 1918-03-22
CHAPTER xI.
Four Walls and a Roof.

IINLtl Nbulu ildNf ltulii Niul HUM til
the Klappan range Il pleasant enough
place. She could not deny its beauty.
But she was far too trail weary to ap-
preci"te 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
aloof in a lonely land.
There was so much 10 be done, work
of the hands; cabin to build, and a
stable; hay to be cut and stacked so
that their horses might live through
the long wiuter-which already her
aided his approach with sharp, sting
ing frosts at night, and flurries OF
snow along the higher ridges.
Bill stuked the tent beside the
spring, fashioned a rude fork out of
Il pronged willow, and fitted handle
10 the sCythe he had brought for the
purpose. From dawn 10 dark he swung
the keen blade in the heavy grass
which carpeted the bottom. Behind
him Hazel piled ii in little mounds
with n fork. She insisted on this,
though it bister,d 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
a rack on II, 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. i can build
Il cabin and stable in six feet of
snow If | have to, but there would
have been a slim chance OF haying once
a 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 reflectively. But still
the law of life is awfully harsh. don't
you think, Bill. Isolation is a terrible
thing when Ii is so absolutely COM
plete. Suppose something went wrong ?
There's no help, and no mercy-abso-
lutely none. 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 persons" 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, 1t 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, l don't think
the law of life is nearly so harsh here
as 1t 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 moi
lonely, so long as I've got you. But
| sometimes | think of something hap
penlng To you-sickness and accidents
and all that"
Forget itw Bill exhorted. That's
the worst of living in this big. still
country-it makes one introspective
and SO confoundedly conscious of wha,
puny atoms we human beings sfre
after all. But there's less chance OF
sickness here than any place. Wait
till l get that cabin built, with a bis
fireplace at one end. Wen be more
comfortable. and things will look 8
little roster. This thing Of everlastint
hurry and hard work gets on every
body's nerves."
The best of the afternoon was still
unspent when the haystacking termi
| VI,
! When the fire had sunk to dull EN-
bers, and the stars were peeping shyl,
i'm the open flap Of their tent, she whis
pered In his ear:
"You mustn't think I'm complalnin.
or lonesome or anything, Billy-boy
when I make remarks like did today
l love you a heap, and I'd be happ,
anywhere with you. And I'm reall,
and truly at home in the wilderness
Only-only sometimes l have a funn,
feeling; as IL were afraid / look III
at these big Mountains, and they seen
to be scowling-as if we were tres
passers or something"
81 know" BIZ drew her close +
him. "But that's just mood. I've fel
that same sensation up here-a foolish
indeinable foreboding. All the out
of-the-way places of the earth produc
that effect. II one Is at all imaginative
It's the bigness of everything, and tn
eternal stiffness. II would be hard O.
the nerves to live here always. Blu
we're only after stake-then all tn
pleasant places OF the earth are ope
to us: with that little old log hous
up by Pine river for a refuge wher
lever we get tired of the world Mt larg,
Cuddle up and so to sleep. You're