Riders of the Purple Sage Manuscript

              [corresponds to page 2 of Riders of the Purple Sage Manuscript] 
Chapter 1 
Lassiter. 
A sharp clip-clop of iron shod hoofs 
deadened and died away, and clouds of yellow 
dust [caret]drifted [written above line] from under the cottonwoods out over the 
sage. 
Jane Withersteen gazed down the wide pur- 
ple slope with dreamy and troubled eyes. 
A rider had just left her and it was his mes- 
sage that held her thoughtful and almost 
sad, awaiting the churchmen who were com- 
ing to resent and attack her right to befriend 
a Gentile. 
She wondered if the unrest and strife that had 
lately come to the little village of Cottonwoods was 
to involve her.  And then she sighed, remembering 
that [crossed out word] her father had founded this remotest 
border settlement of Southern Utah and that he 
had left it to her.  She owned all the ground 
and many of the cottages.  Withersteen House was 
hers and the great ranch with its thousands 
of cattle, and the swiftest horses of the sage.  To 
her belonged Amber Spring, the water which gave verdure 
and beauty to the village and made living 
possible on that wild purple upland waste. 
She could not escape being involved by whatever 
befell Cottonwoods. 
That year, 1871, had marked a change 
which had been gradually coming in the lives