" We must be crazy people," she said, "to live in a leaky mud hut, at the utter end of desolation, and put our money down a hole. The boys find their work here; emptiness has some strange pull, for men on horses. But it's a dreadful thing to be a woman, out on the prairie. A woman on the prairie is an unwanted thing. Nothing but a burden and a tie-down, keeping the ones she loves from doing what they want to do. Until they can't stand it any more, and run away. Cassius will be gone soon, and Andy too. And poor Ben-he'll feel he must stay by us, drawing into himself, and growing old too soon.... "

― Alan LeMay , The Unforgiven