Like water on parched ground, Mae Dean's happiness dries up when her father announces the family is headed west for a new life on the Texas Panhandle. Her brothers are excited about the move, but Mae Dean doesn't want to leave home and make a new one literally out of the ground. In a poignant confrontation, she lashes out at her father, and he comforts her with gentle words of reassurance. Colorful linoleum-cut block prints illustrate the story.