They talked now of fencing the whole tract on all four sides, and of building a dam across the mouth of a certain coulee in the foothills which drained several miles of rough country, thereby converting the coulee into a reservoir that would furnish water for their desert claims.

It would take work, of course; but the Happy Family; were beginning to see prosperity on the trail ahead and nothing in the shape of hard work could stop them from coming to hang-grips with fortune.
Chip helped them all he could, but he had the Flying U to look after, and that without the good team-work of the Happy Family which had kept things moving along so smoothly.

The team-work now was being used in a different game; a losing game, one would say at first glance.
So far the summer had been favorable to dry-farming.

The more enterprising of the settlers had some grain and planted potatoes upon freshly broken soil, and these were growing apace.

They did not know about these scorching August winds, that might shrivel crops in a day.
They did not realize that early frosts might kill what the hot winds spared.