He was careful to take only such land as he had personally seen and thought fit for farming, and always he secured land as near to the railroad as was possible.
Thus he was in the ranks of those foreseeing men who quietly and rapidly were making plans which were later to place them among those high in the control of affairs.

All around were others, less shrewd, who were content to meet matters as they should turn up, forgetting that "The hypocritic days Bring diadems and fagots in their hands; To each they offer gifts after his will." Everywhere was shown the Anglo-Saxon love of land.

Each man had his quarter-section or more.

Even Nora, the waitress at the hotel, had "filed on a quarter," and once in perhaps a month or so would "reside" there overnight, a few faint furrows in the soil (done by her devoted admirer, Sam) passing as those legal "improvements" which should later give her title to a portion of the earth.

The land was passing into severalty, coming into the hands of the people who had subdued it, who had driven out those who once had been its occupants.