"Why not? Wal', I don't know just why; I didn't make the homestead laws--reasonable laws they be, though; I couldn't 'a' made better ones myself--but I can tell you two girls one big, fundamental clause, so to speak, of the Homestead Act, under which you don't come--yes, two of 'em. First, foremost, and enough to swamp your whole outfit, if there was nothing else, you ain't neither of you of age. Second, not being of age, you ain't neither of you the head of a family." I looked at Mr. Horton's bandaged hand, and a thrill of genuine delight went through me, as I hastened to dispute one of his fundamental clauses. "Jessie is the head of a family, Mr. Horton--Ralph and I are her family." "Maybe! Maybe! I s'pose, no doubt, you regard yourselves in that light. No harm's done, as long as you keep it to yourselves, but you'll find that the law won't recognize you in that way. The law's everlastin' partic'lar about such things. But, again, there's the matter of your both being under age! Now, what a misfortune that is to you--s'posing that you're in earnest about wanting to keep this place, but I reckon you ain't--if you recollect, you two, I've always said that I'd have this place. It may save you some trouble and expense, if I say right here and now, that I mean to have it! I mean to have it! Don't forget that! But I ain't a hard man--not at all--and I'm willing to make it as easy as I can for you. Why, I could 'a' filed on this any time since your pa died, but I didn't, and why not?" "If you ask me," I said, speaking very quietly, though I was trembling with indignation, "I suppose you didn't file on it because you thought it would be better to let us get a crop in before you did it; then you could steal the crop along with the place." "Leslie!" Jessie exclaimed, aghast. But Mr. Horton's thin lips parted in a wolfish smile. "Oh--ho! you're up on the homestead laws to some extent, I see. Crops do go with the land when the claimant forfeits his right to the land that bears them. Your father, he forfeited his right by getting drownded, and no one has entered the claim since, so I'm about to enter it. As I said before I ain't a hard man, and I'm willing to make it as easy as I can for you, so I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll pay a fair price for such improvements as your father made. They don't amount to much--" "But if you should decide to commute the claim, instead of waiting five years to prove up, it would be worth a good deal to you to be able to swear that such and such things had stood on the place so long, which you could not do if we took our improvements away; for we have a right to remove whatever we have built, if we do not keep the claim."