The following day Mr. Norton's companions came out from the village and
the entire day, although it was Sunday, was devoted to a trip over the
adjoining country, where the party was given an excellent opportunity to
judge for themselves what the country was like.
They expressed themselves as being favorably impressed and predicted
that at some time in the not very far distant future it would develop
into a great agricultural and stock center.
Mr. Norton and Jack, together with Travis Gully, who had accompanied
them on their tour of inspection, were brought back to the Gully place
and left, while the rest of the party continued their trip toward
Spokane, where they expected to take the train for their homes.
Burns Norton, after telling his friends of his intention of having Jack
and Ida hurry their marriage and accompany him home, explained that this
would probably delay his return for a week or ten days, but he hoped to
rejoin them at the end of this period in their homes in the south. He
bade them goodbye, as did Jack and the Gullys, and the party continued
their trip, leaving him behind.
As for Jack, he had so far figured out the details of his plans for the
wedding that he had persuaded Dugan to lay over in Spokane upon his
arrival there until he and Ida joined him, at which time he would have
Miss Anderson accompany them, and he wanted her and Dugan to attend them
at the marriage. Dugan agreed to this, and he now knew what the
important matter was of which Jack wished to speak. Jack, however, had
said nothing of this arrangement, not even to Miss Anderson.
For the next few days Mrs. Gully and Miss Anderson's time was taken up
in making preparations for Ida's departure. Old Mr. Norton entered a
protest against any preparations whatever, it having been decided that
Mrs. Gully's plan of having the marriage take place in Spokane being the
most feasible, be adopted, and she and Miss Anderson were to accompany
Ida. Mr. Norton insisted that all the necessary arrangements could be
made after their arrival in the city.
The days before their departure were not only busy days for the
ladies--the men too had all they could attend to.
Mr. Norton, after seeing the effect produced by the application of water
on this land, and realizing how simple a matter it was to secure the
necessary supply from the inexhaustable subterranean reservoir that
underlay the territory that constituted the desert area, did not
hesitate to invest a few thousand dollars in bringing about the
reclamation of his land. He arranged before he left to have a well and
pumping plant installed on each forty acres of his holdings.
Two of these wells were to be drilled during the winter that the work of
developing the first two units of his project might start early the
following spring. And he was farsighted enough to appreciate the fact
that when these two units were brought into a state of productiveness
they could be sold in fractions of ten acres each, which was sufficient
land to keep one man occupied with intensive farming, for an increased
value, sufficient to pay for the reclamation of the rest of his land.
This work he arranged for Gully to attend to until Jack's return, when
they would both be busy looking after the project.
At last the day came for the departure of the party for the city, and
all were ready and Ida and her mother had kissed each of the girls and
Joe goodbye, and Jack had faithfully promised Joe that they would have
an automobile when he returned, the party, consisting of Ida, her
mother, Miss Anderson, Jack and his father, were driven to the station
by Travis Gully, who saw them off on their trip and returned home to his
lonesome children, who had never been left by their mother before.
Upon the arrival of the wedding party in Spokane they were met at the
station by the thoughtful Dugan, who Jack had advised by telegram the
time of their departure and the number in the party, and then upon
seeing Dugan at the station, had evidenced as much surprise as the rest.
They immediately went to the hotel, where Dugan had engaged apartments
for them, and that night Ida and her mother attended the theater for the
first time in their lives. Miss Anderson, being escorted by Dugan, made
the party complete.
Two days later Jack and Ida were quietly married in the parlor of the
hotel where they had been stopping and Mr. Dugan and Miss Anderson were
their attendants, just as Jack had planned. A few hours afterward they
were on their way to Galveston under the care of Mr. Norton and Dugan,
who occupied the smoking compartment, while the young couple were left
alone to assume as much as was possible an air of indifference to the
actions of their fellow passengers, who had in some mysterious way
discovered the fact that a wedding had just occurred, and were enjoying
themselves at the young couple's expense.
Mrs. Gully and Miss Anderson returned to their homes the following day,
tired but happy and loaded down with trinkets, both useful and
ornamental, which Mr. Norton, Jack and Ida had entrusted to their care
for distribution among the family as a token of their best wishes.
Short messages and post cards mailed along the route were received from
Jack and Ida in almost every mail, but it was nearly two weeks before
the first real letter reached the home folks. They had been in Galveston
for several days, but father Norton had kept them on the go so
constantly they had not had time to write, and the letter, when it did
come, was filled with accounts of their many trips and delightful time
they were having. "Oh! mamma," wrote Ida. "Just think! I have been on
board the 'Magnolia,' the very yacht on account of which Jack left
home. There was some paint missing from the wheel, and Jack told me it
was where he had worn it off in his effort to keep her off the point,
but of course I know he was joking. He has promised me a trip in this
very boat, if we get time, but I have made him agree to call the regular
crew, and I mean to see that he does it too." Then after a bit she
wrote: "I am just dying for one breath of burning sagebrush; everything
here smells like fish or tar."
These letters from Jack and Ida always contained messages of love to
Miss Anderson, who received them in quiet happiness, as if her life's
work was completed when these young people were wedded.
Just a while after the Holidays Ida wrote: "By the time you receive this
letter we will have started on our return trip. We leave here for New
Orleans and from there we go to Chicago, and Jack has promised me one
whole week or longer, if I want it, with grandpa and grandma, and Jack
says he is going to bring them back with us."
When Minnie Gully received this letter she could hardly content herself,
and immediately wrote to her parents notifying them of the coming of
Jack and Ida, and renewed her plea for them to come.
Travis Gully was progressing nicely with the work Mr. Norton had
arranged for him to have done, and the first well was almost complete
when he came home from the Norton land one night and had just finished
his supper, when hearing a call at the gate, he went out and was handed
a package of mail by a neighbor who was returning late from the
village. Going into the house, he looked over the several letters, found
one for his wife from Ida, and handed it to her, saying: "See how the
youngsters are."
Minnie Gully took the letter, and looking at the address, the date of
mailing, and then carefully seeing if the stamp had been properly
cancelled, just as most women do upon receiving a letter, opened it and
read from Ida:
"We are well and happy; happy because we leave here tomorrow on the
final stage of our journey home. And listen to what I am going to tell
you, mother--grandpa and grandma are coming with us. This is no joke,
for their baggage is at the depot and we are to stay at the hotel
tonight. Jack said to please ask papa to meet us next Wednesday."
There was joy in that desert home that night. The final link in their
chain of happiness was being forged, and would be welded the following
Wednesday.
Travis Gully looked up and remarked: "Well, this is Monday night; day
after tomorrow; it won't be long. It will soon come."
And it did. Gully, with his own family, met them at the station and
those of the passengers who witnessed the meeting from the smoky car
windows knew that happiness reigned in that little desert village for a
time at least.
The following fall Mr. Norton and Dugan came back to attend Gully's
making of final proof on his claim, at which time he proposed to
celebrate. Why Dugan came was a question that was to be answered later,
but it was a well known fact that Miss Anderson had been receiving
numerous letters that bore a Texas postmark.
Burns Norton's project to irrigate one entire section of this desert
land was well under way, and the success of the venture was so well
assured that he had received many flattering offers from his capitalist
friends who had accompanied him on his former trip, to purchase an
interest in his holdings. These he promptly refused.
But the credit for the practical demonstrations that had grounded his
faith in the future of the country he gave to Travis and Minnie Gully,
the homesteaders.
THE END