ve enjoyed a holiday so much. What
do you say, girl?" he asked, as he rested an arm on her round, firm
shoulder and looked with fatherly fondness into the fine brown of her
face.

"I've never known anything like it," she answered. "It's wonderful.
It's life." Then with a sudden little scream she exclaimed, "Oh,
Daddy, why can't you sell your practice and buy a ranch? Wouldn't that
be wonderful?"

"Your mother might not see it that way," he replied, and her eyes fell.
Yes, that was the obstacle. She would have to go back to the city, and
talk by rule, and dress by rule, and behave by rule, and be correct.
She wondered how often her father had turned from the path of the true
adventure because her mother "might not see it that way."

"It's been a good time," the doctor continued, when they had commenced
supper, "but I've already overstayed my holiday. Well, I had good
excuse. I feel that I can travel now, and my leg will be pretty strong
by the time I am back East. If Dave will oblige us by going to town
to-morrow and bringing back someone who can drive a car we will be able
to start the following morning. I will just take the car to town and
either sell it there or ship it."

The following morning found Dave early on the trail, leading a saddled
horse by his side. The hours were leaden for the girl all that day,
and looking into the future she saw the spectre of her life shadowed
down the years by an unutterable loneliness. How could she ever drop
it all--all this wild freedom, this boundless health, this great
outdoors, this life, life, how could she drop it all and go back into
the little circle where convention fenced out the tiniest alien
streamlet, although the circle itself might lie deep in mire? And how
would she give up this boy who had grown so imperceptibly but so
intimately into the very soul of her being; give him up with all his
strength, and virility, and--yes, and coarseness, if you will--but
sincerity too; an essential man, as God made him, in exchange for a
machine-made counterfeit with the stamp of Society? Deeply did she
ponder these questions, and as the day wore on she found herself
possessed of a steadily growing determination that she would not follow
the beaten trail, let the by-paths lead where they might.

Darkness, save for a white moon, had settled over the foothills when
the boy returned with another young man. The stranger ate a ravenous
supper, but was not too occupied