a horse, as any plainsman can testify.

"I've got to go in and wash the dishes," she said, stepping back from
him. "Of course nothing was done in the cabin, and I've been doing a
little house-cleaning. I guess the dish-water is hot by this time--if
it hasn't all boiled away."

Ward, as a matter of course, tied his horse to the fence and went into
the cabin with her. He also asked her to stake him to a dish-towel,
which she did after a good deal of rummaging. He stood with his hat on
the back of his head, a cigarette between his lips, and wiped the
dishes with much apparent enjoyment. He objected strongly to Billy
Louise's assertion that she meant to scrub the floor, but when he found
her quite obdurate, he changed his method without in the least degree
yielding his point, though for diplomatic reasons he appeared to yield.

He carried water from the creek and filled the tea-kettle, the big iron
pot, and both pails. Then, when Billy Louise had turned her back upon
him, while she looked in a dark corner for the mop, he suddenly seized
her under the arms and lifted her upon the table; and before she had
finished her astonished gaspings, he caught up a pail of water and
sloshed it upon the floor under her. Then he grinned in his triumph.

"William Louisa, if you get your feet wet, your mommie will take a club
to you," he reminded her sternly. Whereupon he took the broom and
proceeded to give that floor a real man's scrubbing, refusing to
quarrel with Billy Louise, who scolded like a cross old woman from the
table--except when she simply had to stop and laugh heartily at his
violent method of cleaning.

Ward sloshed and swept and scrubbed. He dug into the corners with a
grim thoroughness that won reluctant approbation from the young woman
on the table with her feet tucked under her, and he made her forget
poor old Jase up on the hillside. He scrubbed viciously behind the
door until the water was little better than a thin, black mud.

"You want to come up to my claim some time," he said, looking over his
shoulder while he rested a minute. "I'll show you how a man keeps
house, William Louisa. Once a week I pile my two stools on the table,
put the cat up on the bunk--and she looks just about as comfortable and
happy as mommie's daughter looks right now--and get busy with the broom
and good creek water." He resettled his hat on the back of his head
and went to work again. "Mill Creek goes dry down below, on