e left me no argument. I know I'm not the same man that came
from Alaska. I couldn't hit the trail with the dogs as I did in them
days. I'm soft in my muscles, and my mind's gone hard. I used to
respect men. I despise them now. You see, I spent all my life in the
open, and I reckon I'm an open-air man. Why, I've got the prettiest
little ranch you ever laid eyes on, up in Glen Ellen. That's where I
got stuck for that brick-yard. You recollect handling the
correspondence. I only laid eyes on the ranch that one time, and I so
fell in love with it that I bought it there and then. I just rode
around the hills, and was happy as a kid out of school. I'd be a
better man living in the country. The city doesn't make me better.
You're plumb right there. I know it. But suppose your prayer should
be answered and I'd go clean broke and have to work for day's wages?"

She did not answer, though all the body of her seemed to urge consent.

"Suppose I had nothing left but that little ranch, and was satisfied to
grow a few chickens and scratch a living somehow--would you marry me
then, Dede?"

"Why, we'd be together all the time!" she cried.

"But I'd have to be out ploughing once in a while," he warned, "or
driving to town to get the grub."

"But there wouldn't be the office, at any rate, and no man to see, and
men to see without end. But it is all foolish and impossible, and
we'll have to be starting back now if we're to escape the rain."

Then was the moment, among the trees, where they began the descent of
the hill, that Daylight might have drawn her closely to him and kissed
her once. But he was too perplexed with the new thoughts she had put
into his head to take advantage of the situation. He merely caught her
by the arm and helped her over the rougher footing.

"It's darn pretty country up there at Glen Ellen," he said
meditatively. "I wish you could see it."

At the edge of the grove he suggested that it might be better for them
to part there.

"It's your neighborhood, and folks is liable to talk."

But she insisted that he accompany her as far as the house.

"I can't ask you in," she said, extending her hand at the foot of the
steps.

The wind was humming wildly in sharply recurrent gusts, but still the
rain held off.

"Do you know," he said, "taking it by and large, it's the happiest day
of my life." He took off his hat, and the wind rippled and twisted his
black hair as he went on solemnly, "