rld between
a decent amount of work an' workin' your head off."

Saxon was in full accord. She looked back on her years of toil and
contrasted them with the joyous life she had lived on the road.

"We don't want to be rich," she said. "Let them hunt their white
sparrows in the Sacramento islands and the irrigation valleys. When we
get up early in the valley of the moon, it will be to hear the birds
sing and sing with them. And if we work hard at times, it will be only
so that we'll have more time to play. And when you go swimming I 'm
going with you. And we'll play so hard that we'll be glad to work for
relaxation."

"I 'm gettin' plumb dried out," Billy announced, mopping the sweat from
his sunburned forehead. "What d'ye say we head for the coast?"

West they turned, dropping down wild mountain gorges from the height
of land of the interior valleys. So fearful was the road, that, on one
stretch of seven miles, they passed ten broken-down automobiles. Billy
would not force the mares and promptly camped beside a brawling stream
from which he whipped two trout at a time. Here, Saxon caught her first
big trout. She had been accustomed to landing them up to nine and ten
inches, and the screech of the reel when the big one was hooked caused
her to cry out in startled surprise. Billy came up the riffle to her
and gave counsel. Several minutes later, cheeks flushed and eyes dancing
with excitement, Saxon dragged the big fellow carefully from the
water's edge into the dry sand. Here it threw the hook out and flopped
tremendously until she fell upon it and captured it in her hands.

"Sixteen inches," Billy said, as she held it up proudly for inspection.
"--Hey!--what are you goin' to do?"

"Wash off the sand, of course," was her answer.

"Better put it in the basket," he advised, then closed his mouth and
grimly watched.

She stooped by the side of the stream and dipped in the splendid fish.
It flopped, there was a convulsive movement on her part, and it was
gone.

"Oh!" Saxon cried in chagrin.

"Them that finds should hold," quoth Billy.

"I don't care," she replied. "It was a bigger one than you ever caught
anyway."

"Oh, I 'm not denyin' you're a peach at fishin'," he drawled. "You
caught me, didn't you?"

"I don't know about that," she retorted. "Maybe it was like the man
who was arrested for catching trout out of season. His defense was self
defense."

Billy pondered, but did not see.

"The trout atta