He'd anticipated the moment so many times, it was hard to believe it had really arrived. But it was real—it was. Everything was exactly as he'd expected to find it ... except for one thing.
Always in his imagination, the land had been waiting for him to claim it. Him alone—and his wife and son.
But they weren't alone.... There were other people on the land. On his land!
And they were acting as if they lived there!
There were three of them—a man, a woman, and a boy of about nineteen. The woman appeared to be cooking a meal over a wood fire, while the man and boy were arranging a foundation pattern with part of the stack of building materials which had been ear-marked for the house.
For his house!
Joan and Billy drew up alongside him, and together they stared at the intruders.
"Who are they, Claude?" his wife said. "What does it mean?"
"I don't know, honey. Maybe they just stopped here to eat. That's what it must be."