Far down this valley they came upon the first sign of settlement.
Hardy souls, far in advance of the coming railroad, had built here and
there a log cabin and were hard at it clearing and plowing and getting
the land ready for crops. Four or five such lone ranches they passed,
tarrying overnight at one where they found a broad-bosomed woman with a
brood of tow-headed children. Her husband was out after supplies--a
week's journey. She kept Hazel from her bed till after midnight,
talking. They had been there over winter, and Hazel Wagstaff was the
first white woman she had bespoken in seven months. There were other
women in the valley farther along; but fifty or sixty miles leaves
scant opportunity for visiting when there is so much work to be done
ere wild acres will feed hungry mouths.
At length they fared into Hazleton, which is the hub of a vast area
over which men pursue gold and furs. Some hundred odd souls were
gathered there, where the stern-wheel steamers that ply the turgid
Skeena reach the head of navigation. A land-recording office and a
mining recorder Hazleton boasted as proof of its civic importance. The
mining recorder, who combined in himself many capacities besides his
governmental function, undertook to put through Bill's land deal.
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