MY NEIGHBORS FIELD 



skulls. Edswick homesteaded the field 

 about the time the wild tide of mining life 

 was roaring and rioting up Kearsarge, and 

 where the village now stands built a stone 

 hut, with loopholes to make good his claim 

 ag^ainst cattle-men or Indians. But Eds- 

 wick died and Roeder became master of the 

 field. Roeder owned cattle on a thousand 

 hills, and made it a recruiting ground for 

 his bellowing herds before beginning the 

 long drive to market across a shifty desert. 

 He kept the field fifteen years, and after- 

 ward falling into difficulties, put it out as 

 security against certain sums. Connor, 

 who held the securities, was cleverer than 

 Roeder and not so busy. The money fell 

 due the winter of the Big Snow, when all 

 the trails were forty feet under drifts, and 

 Roeder was away in San Francisco selling 

 his cattle. At the set time Connor took 

 127 



