her people and most of the people in town had settled there when neighbor needed neighbor and there were no government nor industries for miles , just farms or loners ' shacks , separated by miles , and places worn bare where travelers rested their horses beside springs , and at night the light of distant kerosene lanterns to be seen in the rippled glass windows from miles away , with frogs chirrups filling the air to a deafening pitch and forest pouring down the hills to the moon 's reflection rippling on the wide neosho .