The party resumed their journey immediately after the noon lunch was eaten and camped that night at the home of the wheat grower for whom they were going to work during the harvest season. When they entered the harvest field two days later, to commence the season's run, it was the same old scenes and endless days of toil and strain with which they had contended on their former trip, and nothing occurred to break the monotony.
The professor and Jack Norton became inseparable companions, and planned many excursions together at some future time, when they proposed to explore the coulee. The idea of abandoning his claim and returning to the East was given up by Norton, and he talked incessantly of the wonders of the coulee and the desert. Travis Gully smiled at the young fellow's enthusiasm and encouraged him to renewed effort with promises of assistance to construct another building on his claim and with such other help as he might require.
The party of homesteaders were not worried by the thoughts of the conditions at home as they had been during their first absence. They wrote and received letters regularly, and in every instance the reports received from their homes were most encouraging. Minnie Gully's letters to her husband were filled with recitals of incidents that showed very plainly that she was very much alive to his interests and had assumed the management of affairs on the homestead during his absence with a thoroughness of detail that was surprising. "I have bargained," she wrote, "with a new neighbor for two pigs and a half dozen more chickens," this neighbor having brought chickens and pigs into the newly settled district without first having investigated the source of the supply of feed for them, and was now compelled by its scarcity to sell some of his stock. Gully's wife, seeing the opportunity, had traded some wheat for the chickens and pigs, and as she wrote in her letter, had "made the place look more like a farm." Miss Anderson, she continued, "had proven herself a jewel. She did not see how she could get along without her. She had taken complete charge of the children and was teaching the girls to sew and cook, while she was leading a life of ease." Travis Gully read her letters with an amused smile and wondered at the change in her that had taken place. The constant flow of home talk kept him from getting homesick. And so the harvest season was passed, and when the morning came for the harvesters to return to their homes each had planned his work for the coming winter and was eager to begin.
Travis Gully was to see the realization of his dream of a well on his claim and was anxious to reach home that he might complete arrangements with the well drillers and have them begin work before the snow fell.
CHAPTER XVI.
When the party reached the Gully home upon their return they found the members of their families had assembled there to await their arrival. Minnie Gully and Miss Anderson had prepared a good supper, which was waiting, and which was heartily enjoyed by the returned harvesters. They did not linger long at Gully's, however, as the men were worn out by their long siege and were anxious to reach their own homes.
The second morning after their return Gully drove to the village in search of a man to drill his well. In this he was successful, and completed the deal before his return. The selection of a site for the well and the assembling of the machinery occupied his time for several days following. As the well drilling crew consisted of three men besides Jack Norton, who had arranged to stay with Gully until the well was completed, it would entail considerable additional work for Mrs. Gully, so Miss Anderson agreed to remain and assist her during their stay. In return for this service Gully was to haul the lumber and erect a small house on her claim.
With these arrangements all complete and the arrival of the driller the work progressed nicely, and in less than a month from the time of his return from the harvest field, Gully's well was completed. The flow that was struck by the drillers differed but little from that reached in the dozens of other wells that had been sunk at various points throughout the area; the only variation was in depth, and this was due to the difference in elevation. The flow was abundant, as was proven by a test that failed to lower it, and the water was the purest.