Wid Gardner likewise found reason for a visit to his own homestead.

Mary Gage was left alone, and ah! how white a bride she was.
Sim Gage stood outside his own door, looking at the departing figures of Nels and Karen Jensen crossing the meadow toward their home; turning to catch sight of Wid, though the latter was no longer visible.

In desperation he looked upon a sky, a landscape, which for the first time in all his life seemed to him ominous.

For the first time in his life Sim Gage, sagebrusher, man of the outlands, felt himself alone..