sharp man to fight fer my cows an' my range, a man that knows it and
could make a success of it, an' yet wouldn't care because it was in your
name."

"Would you mind if I loved him a little bit, too?" asked the girl, with
elaborately playful sarcasm.

"Bless you, no. Love him all you want to, but I 'low you couldn't love a
man very long who didn't have all them qualifications I mentioned. I
figger love out somethin' like this. First there's a rockbed of ability,
then a top soil of decency, an' out o' these two, admiration kind o' grows
like corn. Of course you always grind up the corn and soak it with
sentiment; then you've got mush. An' the trouble with most people is they
only think of the mush an' forget the rock an' the top soil."

"Why, you old philosopher!" cried the girl, laughing and squeezing his big
shoulders. "You're awfully clever, really." Which remark brought a
confused but pleased blush to Bissell's hard face that had become
wonderfully soft and tender during this hour with his daughter.

"Now, see here," went on the girl severely, "I think there's something
back of all this talk about marriage. What is it?"

Bissell looked at her, startled, not having expected to encounter feminine
intuition.

"Nothin', only I wish you could marry somebody that'd look out fer you the
way I mentioned. Then I could die happy, though I don't expect to be on
that list fer a long while."

"Anybody in mind?" asked Julie banteringly.

"Well, not exactly," hesitated her father, with another sharp glance. "But
I allow I could dig up one if I tried very hard."

"Go ahead and try."

"Well, now there's Billy Speaker over on the Circle Arrow, as gentle a man
for a blond as I ever see."

"I've only met him twice in my life," remarked the girl. "Try again."

"There's Red Tarken, foreman on the M Square. He'd be good to yuh, I know,
and he's a hum-dinger about cows."

"I am glad he has one qualification aside from his red hair," put in Julie
seriously. "However, I am afraid that as a husband Red would be about as
steady as a bronco saddled for the first time after the winter feeding.
He'd better have free range as long as he lives. Once more, father."

"Well, see here, Julie, it seems to me you could do a lot worse than take
our own Mike Stelton. I've never thought of it much before, but to-night
it sort of occurred to me an'--"

Juliet Bissell broke into an uncontrollable fit of laughter, at which her
father fixed he