The author reanimates “The Virginian” in these short tales lamenting the passing of the wild American west: “The smell of the sage-brush! After several years it was getting to me again. All day long it breathed a welcome and a sigh, as if the desert whispered: ‘Yes, I look as if I were here; but I am a ghost, too; there’s no coming back.’” –Owen Wister, “Members of the Family.”