"Why, yes, I do. Beats hellin' round, same as a stack of hay beats a stack of chips. They're right nice people here, Charlie, mighty pleasant and friendly and plumb cheerful about the good time coming. And every last one of 'em is here because this is the very place he wants to be, and not because he happened to be here and didn't know how to get away. That makes a power of difference. They're plumb animated, these folks; if so be they ain't just satisfied any place, they rise up and depart. So we have no grand old grouches. All the same, I'm free to admit that I haven't quite the elbowroom I need." "I know just how you feel," said Charlie; "I've leased a township and fenced it in. That's why I'm not at some round-up; all my bossies right at home. And dog-gone if I don't feel like I was in jail. But you people can't be making much real money, Adam--hauling over such roads as these. It is forty miles from place to place, in here, while out in the open it is only thirty or maybe twenty-five. That's on account of the sand and the curly places. And then you have nothing to do in the wintertime." "Well, now, it ain't so bad as you'd think--not near. We raise plenty eggs, chickens, pork and such truck, and fruit and vegetables. Lots of milk and butter, too; not like when we didn't have anything but cows. Some of us have our little bunch of cattle in the foothills yet, and fat the steers on alfalfa, and get money for 'em when we sell. But that won't last long, I reckon. We're beginning to grow hogs on alfalfa and fat 'em on corn, smoke 'em and salt 'em and cross 'em with T and ship 'em to El Paso. I judge that ham, bacon and pork will be the main crops presently. "Then we hurled up a grist mill since you was here, coöperative. Hob, he got up that. And we got a good wagon road through the mountain, to Upham. Goes up Redgate and out by MacCleod's Tank. Steepish, but no sand; when we get a car of stuff to ship we can haul twice as much as we can take to Rincon. We can't buy nothing at Upham, sure enough, and sometimes have to wait for our cars. But we can have stuff shipped to Upham from El Paso, and it's downhill coming back. Also, Hobby allows this Upham project will ably assist Rincon to wake up and build us a road up the valley." "Hobby invented this wagon road, did he?" "Every bit. We all chipped in to do the work. But Hob furnished the idea. That ain't all, either. From now on, we're going to have plenty to do, wintertimes. Mr. See, we got a factory up and ready to start. Yessir!" "Easy, Big Chump! You'll strain yourself." "Straight goods--no joking." "Must be a hell of a factory!"