The trail they took ran through the grass, a sinuous riband of hard-beaten soil that flashed where it caught the light.

It was seamed by ruts and fringed by wild barley but in places the grass had spread across it, leaving gaps, into which the horses' legs and the wheel sank.

The smell of wild peppermint rose from among the crackling stalks as the team brushed through.

Now and then a prairie-hen got up, and small animals, like English squirrels, squatted by the trail until the wheels were nearly upon them, and then dived into holes.
"The gophers are surely plentiful," Sadie remarked.

"Don't know that I've seen so many around before, and that's going to be bad for the grain.