“I hope you’re satisfied.”

He shrugged. “Well, the kid’s right. That’s living.”

She disputed this, fiercely. “It is not. Living’s staying in a place, and helping it grow, and growing up with it and belonging. Belong!” It was the cry of the rolling stone that is bruised and weary.

Sam Pardee left for Oklahoma the following week. Milly Pardee refused to accompany him. It was the first time she had taken this stand. “If you go there, and like it, and want to settle down there, I’ll come. I know the Bible says, ‘Whither thou goest, I will go,’ but I guess even What’shername would have given up at Oklahoma.”

For three years, then, Sam Pardee’s