and never a complaint went back to the Old Country.”
“But I don’t quite see—” began Hugh.
He could not understand what all this had to do with Oscar’s living on a lonely hilltop in the forest.
“Linda and I often talked the whole matter over,” Oscar went on, “and wondered what could be done, but we never saw a way. Then one day, when I had been hunting, I came as far as this valley which Jake had just begun trying to hold; it was then I saw suddenly whence help could come. There are only rocky bits of ground to be tilled near Rudolm, but here is land, and prosperity for all even though it will not come in a single day. I thought it out as I lay by my campfire that night, and in the morning I could hardly get home quickly enough to tell them of my plan.”
“And wouldn’t they listen?”
Hugh had moved close up to him to make sure of missing no single word. He was beginning to see the reasons for some of the things he had
