All of the papers in Eastern Canada were carrying ads about the cheap homesteads in Western Canada. ''You can file on 160 acres of land, if you are twenty-one years of age, for ten dollars. You are required to live on it for six months to a year, build a house of some kind, and break at least forty acres of land, that can be put into crop. If you meet all of these requirements, in three years, you can get the Title for your quarter section of land, then you can pre-empt on another quarter.''

Ernie Brown had read that ad in the papers many times. So he saved his money, and as soon as he was twenty-one, he would go west and look the country over. Surely he could find a homestead, and build himself a shack, and break forty acres of land in three years. He was more interested in raising cattle, than he was in grain. So when he was twenty-one and did go west, he found just the place he wanted, beside a small river.