A hog or two wandered aimlessly about.

Under a shed by the barn, a broken-down seeder lay rusting to its ruin.

But overhead, a mammoth live-oak, the largest tree in all the country-side, towered superb and magnificent.

Grey bunches of mistletoe and festoons of trailing moss hung from its bark.

From its lowest branch hung Hooven's meat-safe, a square box, faced with wire screens.
What gave a special interest to Hooven's was the fact that here was the intersection of the Lower Road and Derrick's main irrigating ditch, a vast trench not yet completed, which he and Annixter, who worked the Quien Sabe ranch, were jointly constructing.