It iss a peety you cannot do nothing." "You show me what to do," said Kalman confidently, "and I'll do it." The stable was a tumble-down affair, and sorely needing attention, as, indeed, was the case with the ranch and all its belongings.
A team of horses showing signs of hard work and poor care, with harness patched with rope and rawhide thongs, were waiting in the stable.

Even to Kalman's inexperienced eyes it was a deplorable outfit.
There was little done in the way of cultivation of the soil upon the Night Hawk Ranch.

The market was far away, and it was almost impossible to secure farm labour.

The wants of French and his household were few.

A couple of fields of oats and barley for his horses and pigs and poultry, another for potatoes, for which he found ready market at the Crossing and in the lumber camps up among the hills, exhausted the agricultural pursuits of the ranch.
Kalman concentrated his attention upon the process of hitching the team to the harrows, and then followed Mackenzie up and down the field as he harrowed in the oats.