iously to let her know the
reason and so prevent any misunderstanding.

He knew that Flora was worrying over her father, and he would like to
have cheered her all he could; but he had no desire to cheer Mama Joy
as well--he would not even give her credit for needing cheer. So
he stayed away from them both and gave his time wholly to the
horse-breaking and to affairs in general, and ate and slept in camp to
make his avoidance of the house complete.

Sometimes, of a night when he could not sleep, he wondered why it
is that one never day-dreams unpleasant obstacles and disheartening
failures into one's air castles. Why was it that, just when it had
seemed to him that his dream was miraculously come true; when he found
himself complete master of the Double-Crank where for years he
had been merely one of the men; when the One Girl was also settled
indefinitely in the household he called his home; when he knew she
liked him, and had faith to believe he could win her to something
better than friendship--all these good things should be enmeshed in a
tangle of untoward circumstances?

Why must he be compelled to worry over the Double-Crank, that had
always seemed to him a synonym for success? Why must his first and
only love affair be hampered by an element so disturbing as Mama
Joy? Why, when he had hazed the Pilgrim out of his sight--and as he
supposed, out of his life--must the man hover always in the immediate
background, threating the peace of mind of Billy, who only wanted to
be left alone that he and his friends might live unmolested in the air
castle of his building?

One night, just before they were to start out again gathering beef
for the shipping season, Billy thought he had solved the
problem--philosophically, if not satisfactorily. "I guess maybe it's
just one uh the laws uh nature that you're always bumping into," he
decided. "It's a lot like draw-poker. Yah can't get dealt out to yuh
the cards yuh want, without getting some along with 'em that yuh don't
want. What gets me is, I don't see how in thunder I'm going to ditch
m' discard. If I could just turn 'em face down on the table and count
'em out uh the game--old Brown and his fences and his darn ditch, and
that dimply blonde person and the Pilgrim--oh, hell! Wouldn't we rake
in the stakes if I could?"

Straightway Billy found another element added to the list of
disagreeables--or, to follow his simile, another card was dealt him
which he would like to ha