The last Indian trail had disappeared. The hoofprints of cavalry horses had faded away. The price had been paid for the prairie--the costly measure of death and daring. But the prairie itself, in its loneliness and loveliness, was still unsubdued. Through the fury of the winter's blizzard, the glory of the springtime, the brown wastes of burning midsummer, the long autumn, with its soft sweet air, its opal skies, and the land a dream of splendor which the far mirage reflects and the wide horizon frames in a curtain of exquisite amethyst--through none of these was the prairie subdued. Only to the coming of that king whose scepter is the hoe, did soul of the soil awake to life and promise. To him the wilderness gave up everything except its beauty and the sweep of the freedom-breathing winds that still inspire it. CONTENTS PART I CHAPTER PAGE I The Blessing of Asher 1 II The Sign of the Sunflower 16 III The Will of the Wind 30 IV Distress Signals 45 V A Plainsman of the Old School 58 VI When the Grasshopper Was a Burden 82 VII The Last Bridge Burned 103 VIII Anchored Hearthstones 122 IX The Beginning of Service 136 X The Coming of Love 155 XI Lights and Shadows 175 XII The Fat Years 187 PART II XIII The Rollcall 207 XIV The Second Generation 224 XV The Coburn Book 238 XVI The Humaneness of Champers 263 XVII The Purple Notches 274 XVIII Remembering the _Maine_ 289 XIX The "Fighting Twentieth" 311 XX The Crooked Trail 330 XXI Jane Aydelot's Will 354 XXII The Farther Wilderness 362 XXIII The End of the Wilderness 379 XXIV The Call of the Sunflower 393 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE They sought the trail and followed it westward in the face of the wind 1 "Read these," she said, "then promise me that in the hour when Leigh needs my help you will let me help her" 166 "It's a friendly act on somebody's part." he said grimly 180 Leigh turned to see Thaine Aydelot looking down at her as he leaned over the high back of the rustic seat 274 PART ONE THE FATHER The old Antaean fable of strength renewed from the ground Was a human truth for the ages; since the hour of the Eden-birth. That man among men was strongest who stood with his feet on the earth! --Sharlot M. Hall. WINNING THE WILDERNESS CHAPTER I