Excerpt from Gift of the Desert But she realized now. Those first few weeks had been glorious indeed. She found everything new, attractive, tinged with romance and color. She liked Mrs. Meager, and discovered her task to be an easy one, her time largely at her own disposal. So far as labor was concerned, the position was ideal; she was companion rather than nurse. But it was lonely, ter ribly lonely; and, after those first few weeks nothing seemed to occur to break the dull monotony. It was sixty miles over a half-obliterated desert trail to the nearest town, and that little more than a general store, and a cattle corral. The only link between there and the civilization she had left to the eastward, were the glistening rails of a railroad skirting the edge of the hills, and vanishing amid the sand. Once or twice a day a tiain passed east or west, a wisp of smoke showing on the horizon, only to be quickly blown away by the never-ceasing wind. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.