By the last of July the heat had become so intense that it was decided to close the school until the cooler weather in the fall. The children had made good progress, and as Miss Anderson had taken up a homestead near by, her services for the winter months were assured. So it was planned that when the school was closed she was to visit her home for a few weeks, returning before the harvest season, and was to remain at the Gully home until his return from harvest, after which she was to take up her abode upon her own claim. This arrangement pleased Gully, as it assured him that his family would not be alone during his absence. The few remaining weeks before his departure Gully devoted to the improvement of his house. Material for this purpose was obtained by his having purchased a building erected upon a claim a short ways from his own by Jack Norton, a young man, who having become discouraged, had proposed to accompany Gully to the harvest fields and to use the proceeds of the sale of the building, together with his earnings while harvesting, to purchase a return ticket to the East, thereby abandoning his claim. The price paid by Gully for the material in the building was insignificant, but added very materially to his unpretentious home when reconstructed in connection with it, and assured him against the recurrence of his experience of the winter before. The conditions under which Travis Gully made his second trip to the harvest fields were entirely different. Now he knew where he was going and exactly what to expect upon his arrival. The horses he drove were his own, and he reserved the right to have absolute control of them during the entire trip. He had been requested by his former employer to bring as nearly as possible the same crew as had come on the former occasion. In this he was successful, with the exception of one of the party who had become discouraged and left the country soon after the passing of the severe blizzard of the winter before. The iron molder, the pressman, and the professor were there, and as the progress each had made on their homestead was fair, it was a more jovial party that had left on this occasion. The start was made from the Gully home, where the party had assembled the evening before, and instead of the tear stained cheeks and pitiful sighs that had marked their first departure from the well, there had been a happy gathering of all the neighbors for miles around who had assembled at Travis Gully's home to bid the harvesters farewell. This gathering was not only for those who were going with the Gully party, but was for all the men of the neighborhood who were going forth to replenish their funds ere the winter came.