As a matter of fact,
his holdings were hardly more than nominal.
In the beginning his father had left the ranch equally to Vance and
Elizabeth, thickly plastered with debts. The son would have sold the
place for what they could clear. He went East to hunt for education and
pleasure; his sister remained and fought the great battle by herself. She
consecrated herself to the work, which implied that the work was sacred.
And to her, indeed, it was.
She was twenty-two and her brother twelve when their father died. Had she
been a tithe younger and her brother a mature man, it would have been
different. As it was, she felt herself placed in a maternal position with
Vance. She sent him away to school, rolled up her sleeves and started to
order chaos. In place of husband, children--love and the fruits of love--
she accepted the ranch. The dam between the rapids and the waterfall was
the child of her brain; the plowed fields of the central part of the
valley were her reward.
In ten years of constant struggle she cleared away the debts. And then,
since Vance gave her nothing but bills to pay, she began to buy out his
interest.
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