In the Mutton Hollow neighborhood, only the spring below the Matthews place held water; and all day the stock on the range, crowding around the little pool, tramped out the narrow fringe of green grass about its edge, and churned its bright life into mud in their struggle.
Fall came and there was no relief.

Crops were a total failure.
Many people were without means to buy food for themselves and their stock for the coming winter and the months until another crop could be grown and harvested.

Family after family loaded their few household goods into the big covered wagons, and, deserting their homes, set out to seek relief in more fortunate or more wealthy portions of the country.
The day came at last when Sammy found the shepherd in the little grove, near the deer lick, and told him that she and her father were going to move.
"Father says there is nothing else to do.

Even if we could squeeze through the winter, we couldn't hold out until he could make another crop." Throwing herself on the ground, she picked a big yellow daisy from a cluster, that, finding a little moisture oozing from a dirt- filled crevice of the rock, had managed to live, and began pulling it to pieces.
In silence the old man watched her.

He had not before realized how much the companionship of this girl was to him.