se things the way he buys a
horse."

"Oh, sure."

"You go right on workin' for me like you are," pursued Tim, drunk on
his bargain as he thought it to be, "drawin' your pay like any hand,
without favors asked or given, takin' the knocks as they come to you,
in weather good and bad. That'll be a better way than goin' in shares
on a band next spring like we talked; it'll be better for you, lad;
better for you and Mary."

"All right," Mackenzie assented.

"I'm thinkin' only of your own interests, you see, lad, the same as if
you was my son."

Tim patted Mackenzie's shoulder again, doubtless warm to the bottom of
his sheep-blind heart over the prospect of a hand to serve him three
years who would go break-neck and hell-for-leather, not counting
consequences in his blind and simple way, or weather or hardships of
any kind. For there was Mary, and there were five thousand sheep. As
for Joan, she was out of Tim's reckoning any longer. He had a new
Jacob on the line, and he was going to play him for all he was worth.

"All right; I've got a lot to learn yet," Mackenzie agreed.

"You have, you have that," said Tim with fatherly tenderness, "and
you'll learn it like a book. I always said from the day you come you
had in you the makin' of a sheepman. Some are quick and some are slow,
but the longer it takes to learn the harder it sticks. It's been that
way wi' me."

"That's the rule of the world, they say."

"It is; it is so. And you can put up a good fight, even though you may
not always hold your own; you'll be the lad to wade through it wi'
your head up and the mornin' light on your face. Sure you will, boy.
I'll be tellin' Mary."

"I'd wait a while," Mackenzie said, gently, as a man who was very soft
in his heart, indeed. "I'd rather we'd grow into it, you know, easy,
by gentle stages."

"Right you are, lad, right you are. Leave young hearts to find their
own way--they can't miss it if there's nobody between them. I'll say
no word to Mary at all, but you have leave to go and see her as often
as you like, lad, and the sooner you begin the better, to catch her
while she's young. How's your hand?"

"Well enough."

"When you think you're able, I'll put you back with the sheep you had.
I'll be takin' Reid over to the ranch to put him in charge of the
hospital band."

"I'm able to handle them now, I think."

"But take your time, take it easy. Reid gets on with Swan, bein' more
experienced with men than you, I g