"I guess it will be a ranch."
"It'll be new, anyhow," her husband said, with a timid smile.
After dinner she straightened things up a little, and as she got into
the wagon she said: "Well, there, Mr. Rivers. _You'll_ have to take care
o' things now."
Rivers leered comically, sighed, and looked at his partner. "Bailey, I
didn't know what we needed before; I know now. We need a woman."
Bailey smiled. "Go get one. Don't ask a clumsy old farmer like me to
provide a cook."
"I'll get married to-morrow," said Rivers, with a droll inflection. They
all laughed, and Burke clucked at the team. "Well, good-bye, boys; see
you later."
After leaving the ranch they struck out over the prairie where no
wagon-wheel but theirs had ever passed. Here were the buffalo trails,
deep-worn ruts all running from northwest to southeast. Here lay the
white bones of elk in shining crates, ghastly on the fire-blackened sod.
Beside the shallow pools, buffalo horns, in testimony of the tragic
past, lay scattered thickly. Everywhere could be seen the signs of the
swarming herds of bison which once swept to and fro from north to south
over the plain, all so silent and empty now.
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