might have chose a
likelier subject to fool over, you might."

But Aleck himself had seen the arrival through the window and came out
to greet him with the heartiness accorded all the Sobrante people, and
to assure him that the story was all true; and that, after all, it
were better that he had not been at home when the trouble came; "for
it would have broke your heart, 'Forty-niner,' into more pieces than
old Stiffleg broke your bones, and it wouldn't have healed so soon,
neither. But, come in, come in, boy, and have a mouthful of dinner.
Janet has as fine a dish of haggis as ever I tasted in Aberdeen at
home, and it should relish to you, after all that hospital fare and so
on. Janet! Janet! Here's Ephraim Marsh! Come welcome him!"

And Janet came quickly, like her husband cordial and sympathetic, and
led the deeply moved frontiersman into her own kitchen, where no
uninvited ranchman dared intrude, and there served him well with good
things, including the haggis. And as she served she talked in a wise,
womanly way that soothed his agitation and turned his thoughts from
enmity against the dwarf into thanksgiving that now all was well.

"For since it is over and done with we can reckon the gain. The sweet
bit bairnie has won for herself fresh friends. In all the countryside
there was but one feeling, 'The child must be found.' No other thing
was of any moment, and found she was, by a man so much older than any
of the rest that nobody, not even you, can grudge him the honor. More
hot milk? Oat cake? Nothing? Well, well; for a man that's traveling
you've a small appetite. Must be off already and pack your own bundle?
Why, friend, you would better leave that till one the boys rides up
for the mail. Due before this, indeed, for Sobrante ranchers are ever
keen for their post stuff. No? A horse, then? Aleck was going to do a
bit of plowing with her, later on, but he'll eagerly give over that
for you."

But Ephraim felt that he could delay for nothing more, not even for
the arrival of a Sobrante messenger; and as for Jean, the sorrel
mare--he and she were old acquaintances, and he declined her services
with a grim smile, saying:

"Thank you, Janet, it's kindly offered, but I'm in haste and I'd
rather trust my own lame leg than her four lagging ones. Besides, if
Aleck has been afield in this search he'll be behindhand in his work,
and he's a hand to keep things up to the level line. Good-by, good-by.
Oh! wait a bit, though