The future, Cather's Alexandra knows, is with the land, with seeing the complex interaction (what we would call biodiversity) ever working, and what pastoral mysteries might mean to humans if they could synchronize with the rhythms of nature (Garrard, 2004, 54). She had never known before how much the country meant to her, the chirping of the insects down in the long grass had been like the sweetest music. She had felt as if her heart were in hiding down there, somewhere, with the quall and the plover and all the little wild things that crooned or buzzed in the sun. Under the long shaggy ridges, she felt the future stirring (O Pioneers, 71).

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