The more they talked about it the more enthusiastic they became. Underthe glow of this quite recent project they felt they could hurl contempt on AuntPatience and her unnatural hold on life.

"I don't know but what I would rather take 'elp from the livin' thanthe dead, anyway," Reginald said, virtuously, that night before theywent to bed.

"They're more h'apt to ask it back, just the same," objected Randolph.

"I was just goin' to say," Reginald began again, "that I'd just as soontake 'elp from the livin' as the dead, especially when there ain't nodead!"

They began at once to write letters to their long-neglected brotherFblack, enthusiastically setting forth the charms of this new country.They dwelt on the freedom of the life, the abundance of game, and theview! They made a great deal of the view, and certainly there wasnothing to obstruct it, for the prairie lay a dead level for ten milesnorth of them, only dotted here and there with little weather-bleachedwarts of homes like their own, where other optimists were trying tomake a dint in the monotony.