It's built on unsurveyed government land--land that I have
no more legal claim to than any passing trapper. I never thought of it
before--which goes to show that this double-harness business puts a
different face on 'most everything. But I'm going to remedy that. Of
course, it may be twenty years before this country begins to settle up
enough so that some individual may cast a covetous eye on this
particular spot--but I'm not going to take any chances. I'm going to
formally stake a hundred and sixty acres of this and apply for its
purchase. Then we'll have a cinch on our home. We'll always have a
refuge to fly to, no matter where we go."
She nodded appreciation of this. The cabin in the clearing stood for
some of those moments that always loom large and unforgettable in every
woman's experience. She had come there once in hot, shamed anger, and
she had come again as a bride. It was the handiwork of a man she loved
with a passion that sometimes startled her by its intensity. She had
plumbed depths of bitterness there, and, contrariwise, reached a point
of happiness she had never believed possible. Just the mere
possibility of that place being given over to others roused in her a
pang of resentment.
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