INTRODUCTION. 15 
the boy called his father, ‘‘Come here; see what my 
alfalfa has done!’’ And the sire, amazed and be- 
wildered at first, stood there scratching his old gray 
head and smiling an amused, puzzled smile. Finally 
he turned and said: ‘‘Son, do you suppose that I 
want to grow a crop that won’t grow till you put a 
barrel over it?’’ The lad laughed and said no more, 
but went back to his mountains and the alfalfa 
fields, remembering the one stalk of alfalfa that had 
succeeded and saying, ‘‘I know that alfalfa can be 
grown in Ohio. If one stalk will grow as that one 
grew, why can’t a man grow a thousand? If he can 
grow a thousand, why can’t he grow a million, why 
can’t he cover his farm with alfalfa?’’ 
The ranch was not just the same to the boy when 
he came back to it, not just the same because he had 
ever before him the image of the sweetheart left be- 
hind. Yet it was a happy place, and he went tumul- 
tuously into the work again, strong as a young giant, 
eager to do, finding no day long enough for him. 
Now was time of happy dreams, and after a time 
the dreams began to materialize as he mixed mud 
and made ‘‘adobes,’’ or ‘‘dobies,’’ as the boys called 
them, and hauled down logs from far up the canyon, 
for She was coming and a house must be made ready 
for her. 
There were wonderful letters coming, too, and 
often the boy would be seen on Sundays sitting far 
up on the rocky hillside, away from the confusion and 
talk of the cowboys, reading the last letter that She 
had written, or writing one in reply to it. The work 
