r leave Utah. What would I do in the world
with my broken fortunes and my broken heart? Ill never leave these
purple slopes I love so well."

"I reckon I ought to 've knowed that. Presently you'll be livin' down
here in a hovel, en' presently Jane Withersteen will be a memory. I only
wanted to have a chance to show you how a man--any man--can be better 'n
he was. If we left Utah I could prove--I reckon I could prove this
thing you call love. It's strange, an' hell an' heaven at once, Jane
Withersteen. 'Pears to me that you've thrown away your big heart on
love--love of religion an' duty an' churchmen, an' riders an' poor
families an' poor children! Yet you can't see what love is--how it
changes a person!... Listen, an' in tellin' you Milly Erne's story I'll
show you how love changed her.

"Milly an' me was children when our family moved from Missouri to Texas,
an' we growed up in Texas ways same as if we'd been born there. We had
been poor, an' there we prospered. In time the little village where we
went became a town, an' strangers an' new families kept movin' in. Milly
was the belle them days. I can see her now, a little girl no bigger 'n
a bird, an' as pretty. She had the finest eyes, dark blue-black when she
was excited, an' beautiful all the time. You remember Milly's eyes! An'
she had light-brown hair with streaks of gold, an' a mouth that every
feller wanted to kiss.

"An' about the time Milly was the prettiest an' the sweetest, along came
a young minister who began to ride some of a race with the other fellers
for Milly. An' he won. Milly had always been strong on religion, an'
when she met Frank Erne she went in heart an' soul for the salvation of
souls. Fact was, Milly, through study of the Bible an' attendin' church
an' revivals, went a little out of her head. It didn't worry the old
folks none, an' the only worry to me was Milly's everlastin' prayin' an'
workin' to save my soul. She never converted me, but we was the best
of comrades, an' I reckon no brother an' sister ever loved each other
better. Well, Frank Erne an me hit up a great friendship. He was a
strappin' feller, good to look at, an' had the most pleasin' ways. His
religion never bothered me, for he could hunt an' fish an' ride an' be a
good feller. After buffalo once, he come pretty near to savin' my life.
We got to be thick as brothers, an' he was the only man I ever seen who
I thought was good enough for Milly. An' the day they were married I