Winning the Wilderness

Winning the Wilderness

A reach of level prairie bounded only by the edge of the worldmisty ravelings of heliotrope and amber, covered only by the arch of heavenblue, beautiful and pitiless in its far fathomless spaces. To the southwest a triple fold of deeper purple on the horizon linemere hint of commanding headlands thitherward. Across the face of the prairie streams wandering through shallow clefts, aimlessly, somewhere toward the southeast; their course secured by gentle swells breaking into sheer low bluffs on the side next to the water, or by groups of cottonwood trees and wild plum bushes along their right of way. And farther off the brown indefinite shadowings of half-tamed sand dunes. Aside from these things, a featureless landscapejust grassy ground down here and blue cloud-splashed sky up there. The last Indian trail had disappeared. The hoofprints of cavalry horses had faded away. The price had been paid for the prairiethe costly measure of death and daring. But the prairie itself, in its loneliness and loveliness, was still unsubdued. Through the fury of the winters 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 amethystthrough 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. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 27505
Author: McCarter, Margaret Hill
Release Date: Dec 12, 2008
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Illustrator: Marchand, J. N