e or any other
place you say." The man of the mountains was absorbing some of the
little man's enthusiasm. "Sure I'll meet you, but you work so fast and
drive right through that I can hardly keep up. Why, we hardly drive
through with one thing until you have another. If I seem indifferent
and not very responsive, it's because I haven't caught up yet. Think
of it! Ten hours ago I was coming out of the hills with a serious
problem that was hindering my work. Now, I am rid of the problem, have
ninety dollars in cash; have the offer of all the funds I need, and
prospects of a fine companion all through the dreaded winter. The
change from poverty to riches has been so rapid that it's more like a
dream than a reality. And here's the worst feature of the whole
business," continued Welborn as the two made their way to the ticket
wagon. "Here's the fly in the ointment. My side of the equation has
been nothing but plus, plus. I am fearful that yours will be more than
minus. You are tired of the mob; you want to get away from the crowds.
You have a mental picture of the ranching business; horses, cattle,
cowboys, knee-deep grass billowing through the great open spaces. It's
your dream to land right in the midst of such surroundings, and your
disappointments will be terrible to endure. I have no such ranch and
there's none nearer than ten miles of my place. Most of the cattle
nowadays are purebred; the cowboys are cow hands, feeders, and
care-takers--without a mount--and many of them never saw a pair of
chaps and few wear ten gallon hats like the picture books show. That
stuff belongs to the rodeos and dude ranches. Why the Diamond A Ranch
over on Mad Trapper Fork is a model for any manufacturing plant. It
has bookkeepers, salesmen, feeders from 'aggy' schools. You won't like
that; it's not up to the standards of your dream. Of course you will
like old Jim Lough of the B-line Ranch. He's ninety and used to be a
tough hombre of the old school. But now he's out of the picture, his
son Larry runs the ranch, and he is soon to give way to a young
college girl who is up on foreign markets and the like.

"My fears are that what you see and experience will not be the picture
of beauty and action that you had dreamed about. My poor little place,
without livestock or feed--or action--will be a terrible
disappointment."

"Well we will make a ranch out of it. The building of a ranch will be
more pleasure than the possession of the finished p