just love the wild country!" she exclaimed, breaking a
long interval of silence. "The plains and the mountains, the woods and
the creeks, and the wonderful air----"

"An' the rattlesnakes, an' the alkali, an' the soap-holes, an' the
quicksand, an' the cactus, an' the blisterin' sun, an' the lightnin',
an' the rain, an' the snow, an' the ice, an' the sleet----"

The girl interrupted him with a laugh: "Were you born a pessimist, or
has your pessimism been acquired?"

The Texan did not lift his eyes from the trail: "Earnt, I reckon, would
be a better word. An' I don't know as it's pessimism, at that, to look
in under the crust of your pie before you bite it. If you'd et flies
for blueberries as long as I have, you'd----"

"I'd ask for flies, and then if there were any blueberries the surprise
would be a pleasant one."

"Chances are, there wouldn't be enough berries to surprise you none
pleasant. Anyhow, that would be kind of forcin' your luck. Follerin'
the same line of reasoning a man ort to hunt out a cactus to set on
so's he could be surprised pleasant if it turned out to be a Burbank
one."

"You're hopeless," laughed the girl. "But look--the moonlight on the
peaks! Isn't it wonderful! See how it distorts outlines, and throws a
mysterious glamour over the dark patches of timber. Corot would have
loved it."

The Texan shook his head: "No. It wouldn't have got _to him_. He
couldn't never have got into the feel of stuff like that. Meakin did,
and Remington, but it takes old Charlie Russell to pick it right out of
the air an' slop it onto canvas."

Alice regarded the man in wonder. "You do love it!" she said. "Why
should you be here if you didn't love it?"

"Bein' a cow-hand, it's easier to make a livin' here than in New York
or Boston. I've never be'n there, but I judge that's the case."

"But you are a cow-hand from choice. You have an education and you
could----"

"No. All the education I've got you could pile onto a dime, an' it
wouldn't kill more'n a dozen men. Me an' the higher education flirted
for a couple of years or so, way back yonder in Austin, but owin' to
certain an' sundry eccentricities of mine that was frowned on by
civilization, I took to the brush an' learnt the cow business. Then
after a short but onmonotonous sojourn in Las Vegas, me an' Bat came
north for our health. . . . Here's Johnson's horse pasture. We've got
to slip through here an' past the home ranch in a quie