“How much land does he say belongs to him?  And whar did he git his title to it?” Jerry Simpson asked, when Dade was waiting for his answer.

Out of his own knowledge Dade told him.

Jerry Simpson brought two matches from his pocket, inspected them gravely and returned one carefully; lighted the other with the same care, applied the flame to his tobacco, made sure that the pipe was going to “draw” well, blew out the match, and tucked the stub down out of sight in a crease in the bark of the log upon which he was sitting.  After that he rested his elbows upon his great, bony knees and smoked meditatively.

CHAPTER X

THE FINEST LITTLE WOMAN IN THE WORLD

“You tell Mr. Picardy that I ain’t visitin’ nobody, so he needn’t consider that I’m company,” announced Jerry, after a wait that was beginning to rasp the nerves of his visitors.  “I come here to live!  He’s called this land hisn, by authority uh the king uh Spain, you say, for over twenty year.  Wall, in twenty year he ain’t set so much as a fence-post fur as the eye can see.  I been five mile from here on every side, and I don’t see no signs of his ever usin’ the land fer nothin’.  Now, mebby the king uh Spain knew what he was talkin’ about when he give this land away, and then agin mebby he didn’t.  ’T any rate, I don’t know as I think much of a king that’ll give away a hull great gob uh land he never seen, and give it to one feller—­more ’n that feller could use in a hull lifetime; more ’n he would ever need fer his young ‘uns, even s’posin’ he had a couple uh dozen—­which ain’t skurcely respectable fer one man, nohow.  How many’s he got, mister?”

“One—­his daughter, over there.”

“Hum-mh!  Wall, she ain’t goin’ to need so derned much.  You tell Mr. Picardy I’ve come a long ways to find a home fer Mary and me; a long road and a hard road.  I can’t go no further without I swim fer it, and that I don’t calc’late on doin’.  I ain’t the kind to hog more land ‘n what I can use—­not mentionin’ no names; but I calc’late on havin’ what I need, if I can get it honest.  My old mother used to read outa the Bible that the earth was the Lord’s and the fullness thereof; and I ain’t never heard of him handin’ over two-thirds of it to any king uh Spain.  What he’s snoopin’ around in Ameriky fur, givin’ away great big patches uh country he never seen, I ain’t askin’.  Californy belongs to the United States of Ameriky, and the United States of Ameriky lets her citizens make homes for themselves and their families on land that ain’t already in use.  If Mr. Picardy can show me a deed from Gawd Almighty, signed, sealed, and delivered along about the time Moses got hisn fer the Land uh Canyan, or if he can show a paper from Uncle Sam, sayin’ this place belongs to him, I’ll throw off these logs, h’ist the box back on the wagon and look further; but I ain’t goin’ to move on the say-so uh no furrin’ king, which I don’t believe in nohow.”