wanted to graze on the range should pay a
certain sum to the United States Government for a permit, and should be
allotted a particular pasture for his herd. The only restriction was
that if an owner was granted a permit he must promise to obey the rules
of the range. It was a wise and just arrangement. Only a certain number
of sheep are now allowed to graze on a given area; there is therefore
plenty of grass and no need for the flocks to eat the herbage down close
and destroy it. The money for the permits, in the meantime, goes to the
government, and enriches the United States treasury. Much of this money
is spent in paying men to work on the range and better the conditions
there, so really it comes back to the people who pay it."

"I understand," Donald replied quickly, when Sandy paused for breath.
"It is very interesting isn't it, father? But I do not see how they can
prevent herders who have no permits from grazing on the range."

"They ought not to have to prevent them!" answered Sandy, hotly. "The
herders ought to be decent enough to obey the law. If you are granted a
favor you ought to be a gentleman in accepting it. Now I'm born of
generations of shepherds--poor country folk they were, too; but my
people ever had a sense of honor--they were gentlemen."

Sandy drew himself up and threw back his head as he spoke the words.

"I cannot imagine a McCulloch being anything but a gentleman, Sandy,"
said Mr. Clark, who had been listening carefully to Sandy's story of the
range.

Sandy was pleased.

"It's many would not think so, Mr. Clark," he replied, as he stretched
out his rough, brown hands.

"One can tell nothing from hands," laughed Mr. Clark. "The heart is the
thing that tells the tale. A clean, honest heart makes a gentleman, and
no one is a gentleman without it."

"But you are not telling me how they kept the herders without permits
off the range," put in Donald mischievously.

"I almost forgot. The question always ruffles me. You did a bad thing to
stir me up about it. I'll tell you. The United States had to put
soldiers on the range--think of it--soldiers to protect the government
from its own people! And when the government was working to help those
very people, too. They called these soldiers rangers. It was their duty
to patrol the dividing line of the National Reserves. Every herder who
passed in must show his permit and let the ranger see that he had with
him no more sheep than he ought to have