58 WHERE ROLLS THE OREGON 



like that of the men who attempt to make a home 

 out of three hundred and twenty acres of High 

 Desert sage. For this is so much more than they 

 need. Three feet by six is land enough — and 

 then there were no need of wire for a fence, or 

 of a well for water. Going down to the sea in ships 

 or into mines by a lift, are none too high prices to 

 pay for life ; but going out on the desert with a 

 government claim, with the necessary plough, the 

 necessary fence, the necessary years of residence, 

 and other things made necessary by law, to say 

 nothing of those required by nature and marriage, 

 is to pay all too dearly for death, and to make 

 of one's funeral a needlessly desolate thing. A man 

 ploughing the sage — his woman keeping the 

 shack — a patch of dust against the dust, a 

 shadow within a shadow — sage and sand and 

 space ! 



We were nearing Silver Creek, some forty 

 miles, perhaps, from Burns, when ahead, and off 

 to the right of us rose a little cloud of dust. I 

 watched it with interest, wondering what it might 

 be, until through the brush I made out a horse- 

 man galloping hard to intercept us, as I thought. 

 I could not reach ahead with my eye to the 



