n, Ken says, an' he
kin eat it cleah off if he wants. I m thinkin' o leavin my spah gun foh
him to nibble on at odd times."

"An' Ken?"

There is a certain diffidence in the sturdy fellow's voice. Red looking
at him with a world of reassurance in his laughing blue eyes, grins
broadly.

"Hell!" he says succinctly. "Yuh go oveh theah and watch hes eyes
follerin' of her. When a man gits through playin' thu goat he gin'rally
feels some obligated to act sheep foh a spell, so's to even up thu
deal."

* * * * *

Over at the Circle D ranch a broad-shouldered man in flannel shirt and
"fair leather" _chaparejos_ lies sprawled on the veranda beside a
low-hung hammock in which is lying a brown-haired woman. Pressed to her
lips is a spray of mountain heart's-ease, and In her heart is the
sweeter ease of mountains removed. The man is dusty and saddle-worn,
but in his heart is a great Peace.

Tenderly he lays his lips on the hand shyly touching his bronzed cheek
and the woman crimsons with pleasure. For a long time they lie in
understanding silence, then the grave rich voice of the man says:

"Tell me, sweetheart, do you never long for the pleasant gayety, the
diversions, the distractions of your old social world? Are you really
happy and content here in this circumscribed little sphere?"

She slips quickly from the hammock to the floor beside him and draws his
head up to her bosom.

"Do I ever long? Yes, sweetheart, I have wept with longing--for the hour
of your daily return. I have sighed--for the coming of the dusk that
would bring you home to baby and me! I have pined--for the music of the
hoof-beats that would thrill me if they passed over my grave."

From the little nursery comes the lusty insistence of a child clamoring
for his desires. Very gently she releases herself from his embrace. Then
this Madonna of the Range goes proudly to the mothering of her
first-born.

Old Abigail, hastening likewise to obey that imperious summons, smiles
approvingly as the man, catching at the garment trailing above his face,
lays his lips to its hem.

"I kinda reckon," she says softly to herself, "that Belshazzar has come
back to stay!"

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SONG OF THE WOLF***

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