A few antelope scurried away out of the path, and a wolf sitting on a
height gravely watched the teams as if marvelling at their coming. The
wind swept out of the west clear and cold. The sky held no shred of
cloud. The air was like some all-powerful intoxicant, and when Bailey
pointed out a row of little stakes and said, "There's the railroad,"
their imagination supplied the trains, the wheat, the houses, the towns
which were to come.
At the claim Blanche sat on a box and watched the two men as they
swiftly built the little cabin which was to be her home. Their hammers
rang merrily, and soon she was permitted to go inside and look up at the
great sky which roofed it in. This was an emotional moment to her. As
she sat there listening to the voices of the men who were drawing this
fragile shelter around her, a great awe fell upon her. It seemed as if
she had drawn a little nearer to the Almighty Creator of the universe.
Here, where no white man had ever set foot, she was watching the
founding of her own house. Was it a home? Could it ever be a home?
Swiftly the roof closed over her head, and the floor crept under her
feet.
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