Return to Four Corners

Will Ballard fought for the South, but he's not ready to go home when he walks away from Appomattox. Old wounds still fester and only time will heal them.

He joins a wagon train heading West, and finds a ready-made family. When events drive him away, he becomes a cowpuncher, just in time to fight land grabbers and a rancher who figures his land is more important than men's lives. Before he can make up his mind to go home, he's got himself a job building a railroad. All goes well until the carpetbaggers set their sights on it, and once more he's adrift.

On the move again, he hires on with a freighter and finds a temporary home on the seat of a wagon. Hard work and friendship finish his healing, and it's finally time for him to go home. Trouble is, those men in their fancy black suits are still grabbing land in the South and West. It's more than Will can take, and he's not shy about saying so.

Eventually he fights his way back to Four Corners, only to discover the same land grabbers and carpetbaggers at work, and a pretty girl who thinks highly of him. There's only one thing for Will to do: hold onto his home, keep the land, marry the girl. And it ain't gonna be easy.

"Place called Four Corners," I said. "Used to be home sweet home to me; not that I seen it lately, not since I went off over six years ago to fight in the War."

Jake got a thoughtful look on his face and nodded his head. "Lots went; not so many came back," he said quietly. "The War was an awful thing."

We went on quite a way without talking before Jake glanced at me and spoke again. "You don't look all that old. How come you went off to war?"

"My mistake. Me and Papa had a falling out; so I hit the trail."

"Well, you'll make up when you get home." Jake nodded. "You'll see."

I was so deep in my thinking that I barely heard what Jake said. I was full of feelings, and Jake seemed to have a sympathetic ear. "I was all of sixteen, but full grown and mule stubborn. That don't give you no peace when you got a world gone crazy, and you haven't seen nobody close in years. Naw, not nobody like all the folks I left in Four Corners.

"Being plain stubborn is what took me away from Four Corners. Bull headed, I was, and thinking I was full grown, and ready to be my own boss. But all of that's no comfort when you get a bellyful.

"Anyhow, when the War ended, I wasn't ready to go home right then. My words with Papa were mighty hard, and not easy to forget, maybe as hard to forgive."

"Sounds like you was ready to come on back," Jake said.

"Aw, yeah," I said. "In all my being out and about, I never ran across anybody like all the folks in Four Corners that I ran off and left behind. Lately I been remembering the ones back at home that I haven't seen in years. So, I'll be mighty glad to be off this train in Austin and headed toward home. For me, this eastbound train has been a long time coming."