et so drunk Sunday that it takes them
nearly all week to sober up. I've had to drive 'em away. And the last
one! Mercy sakes! The biggest fool that ever made a track; and a
hypercrit with it. I found him in the corner of the fence prayin' for
rain. Well, I just gathered a bridle and slipped up on him, and if his
prayer didn't have a hot end I don't know beans when I see 'em. There
was a streak of barbed wire on the fence, and in tryin' to get over he
got tangled; and if I didn't give it to him! The idea of a fool gettin'
down on his knees tryin' to persuade the Lord to change his mind! All
that belongs to me," she went on, waving her hand--"best farm right now
in Lake County. And there's the house on the hill, as nice a cottage as
you'd want to live in. What do you think of it all?"

"Charming," said Milford. "There's many an old cow in the West that
would like to stick her nose up to her eyes into this rich grass."

"You bet, Bill! Are you from the West?"

"Yes, from all over the West. I used to herd cattle; I tried to raise
sheep--and I could have done something, but I was restless and wanted to
stir about. But I've got over that. Now I want to work."

"That's the way I like to hear a man talk," she said, lifting the latch
of a gate. "I don't believe you'd pray for rain."

"The only thing worth prayin' for, madam, is a soul."

"Good enough! Bill, I like you. They say you have to eat a barrel of
salt with a man before you know him, and I reckon it's true. But I've
eaten so many barrels of salt with men that I know one as far as I can
see him. You don't profess to be so awful honest, do you?"

There was hollowness in his laugh, and bitterness in his smile. "I
haven't made any pretensions," he said.

"Well, you just keep still and don't make any," she replied.

Through an orchard, they passed to a house on a hill. It stood in the
shade of a great walnut tree. She pointed out the barn, the
garden-patch, and the woods that belonged to the place. In the soft
light it appeared a paradise to the man from the West, green with grass,
purple with flowers. She asked him a question, and he answered with a
sigh. Then he told her that he was almost moneyless. He had no capital
but his will--his muscle. Such a place would be a godsend to him. In his
past life there was much to grieve over--time thrown away,
opportunities laughed at, money squandered. He could not help dreaming
over his follies, and his dream choked him; so h