The Land of Lure: A Story of the Columbia River Basin

by Elliott Smith

"Well, we will figure that out too when we get at it," and so saying, they returned to the house, and clearing off the table, sat down with pencil and paper to draw up the form of their first contract.

To the uninitiated the process of removing sagebrush from and plowing land would be simple enough, and under ordinary circumstances and over a small area it would be, but in this instance it was different. The land was not a great ways off, a few miles at best, from Gully's home, but too far to go and come each day, as the working hours during the winter were extremely short, and too much time would be lost on the road, and besides, the amount of the land to be prepared was unusually large for one undertaking, as an entire section, some six hundred and forty acres, were to be gotten ready for seeding at the very earliest possible time.

Gully and Norton had taken all this into consideration, and the extra preparation that was required for the work was an additional expense that must be considered. They knew that should they get the contract they must establish a camp on the land in question from which to carry on their operations. There must be shelter erected for both those engaged in the work and the stock that would be required for plowing, for they knew that the snow might come at any time. Gully did not expect another blizzard as severe as the one encountered the winter before, as he had learned that they were not of yearly occurrence, but he had told Jack of the terrible one they had experienced on that occasion, that in case one did come they would not be unprepared.

Long into the night they worked, figuring out each little detail and drawing a diagram of the land. They allotted certain parcels of it to separate individuals on whom they expected to call for assistance. They knew that any of their neighbors on whom they called would be only too glad of the opportunity to earn the money by clearing their allotted portion. To those of their acquaintances who had no horses was assigned the task of gathering and piling the brush for burning.

The arrangements as planned by Norton brought Gully to the front as a public benefactor, and the clearing of the land a community affair. He so arranged each little detail as to make Travis Gully appear as the moving spirit in this distribution of the opportunity for earning a few dollars among his neighbors, and so well did he contrive to eliminate himself from all but the responsibility that his own connection with the work was almost entirely lost sight of.

Mrs. Gully and Ida sat quietly by and listened to the discussion of their plans long after the children had retired. At times Norton's enthusiasm and interest in the work he was doing would become so great he would forget his surroundings, and with shirt sleeves rolled back and neck band unbuttoned, he would sit drumming upon the table with pencil poised, ready to record the result of some mental calculation, muttering to himself. Unconsciously he would use expressions that were foreign to the Gullys, who would watch him closely.

Travis Gully and his wife would wait patiently until Norton announced his solution of the problem, but with Ida the effect was different. She would watch his every movement, and as his thoughts became more concentrated the strain on her would become more tense and she would partially arise from her chair, with hands clenched until the nails left their imprint in her palms, and it would seem that she must call to him, and upon his first movement to record some figures or to announce some clause that he wished to insert in the contract, she would sink back in her chair, and glancing around nervously, resume her bit of fancy work, that she was learning under Miss Anderson's instructions.

Travis Gully was too much absorbed to note his daughter's actions, but it did not escape the quick eyes of the mother, who suggested to her that perhaps they had better retire and leave her father and Jack to finish their work alone. Minnie Gully had never thought of Ida as anything but a child, and she had not taken into account the change this life in the open had wrought upon her oldest daughter. She watched her as she carefully folded her bit of embroidery in obedience to her mother's suggestion that they retire, and as she watched the knowledge was forced upon her that she was the mother of a fully developed, robust young woman, and the thought of the additional responsibility this knowledge brought with it was made more gratifying by others of comradeship. She now had a companion for the molding of whose character she alone was responsible.

With a parting warning to the men, to "remember you are to start to town early in the morning and not to stay up too late," she and Ida went to their room. Gully and Norton needed no such warning. The fact of their going to town was a prime factor in the necessity for their working as they were, and as for staying up late, their work had to be completed before they could retire.

As the work progressed, after the ladies had left them, Travis Gully was surprised at the knowledge of such work as Norton evidenced, and he realized that he had done wisely in taking him into his confidence and gaining his assistance. He listened without interruption to Jack Norton's plans as he outlined them, and to the results of his calculations as to the expense incurred and profits derived from the transaction as they were read with such an apparent familiarity with figures that he did not question their correctness.