The Ranch at the Wolverine

or a ranch may experience complete isolation, and the unbroken monotony which sometimes accompanies it, for a month at a time. Summer work or winter storm may be the barrier

acceptance of his environment, or he becomes restless and fired with a surplus energy of ambition, or

es in upon the heels of incident, and life becomes as tumultuous as th

solitary living. You are shown an effect without being given the cause of that effect. You pronounce the West wild, and you never think of the long winters that bred in silence and brooding solitude those storm-perio

and eliminating the debts, and of wresting prosperity out of a condition of picturesquely haphazard poverty. She went about it with the pathetic confidence of youth and ignorance. She rode up and down the canyons and over the higher, grassier ridges, to watch the cattle on their summer range and keep them from straying. She went with John Pringle after posts and helped him fence certain fertile slopes and hollows for winter grazing. She drove the rickety old mower

ce renewed, managing besides to buy the winter supply of "grub" and a sewing

e, if looks and tones went for anything, and he helped Billy Louise a good deal by telling her just how much she ought to pay for the yearlings old Johnson, over on Snake River, had for sa

uld probably come in and crowd them out, but in the meantime there was money in cattle-and the more cattle, the more money. He was goi

hed new dream material. She rode the hills and saw in fancy whole herds of cattle where now wandered scattered animals. She dreamed of the time when Ward and Charlie Fox

, but when she did it was with a deepening impression of his unflagging tenderness to Marthy-a tenderness that manifested itself

or anything? Well, I'm just going to take you over there some day and let you see the difference. He's cut two more windows and built on an addition with a porch, if you please. And he has a bookcase he made himself, j

n," said her mother. "She didn't have nothing domestic

n't suppose you can change a person completely-but everything is lots cleaner than it used to be before Charlie came. He's going to buy more cattle, too, he says. Young stock, mostly. He says there's no sense in anybody being poor, in such a country as this. He says he intends to make Marthy rich; Aunt Martha, he calls her. I'm certainly going to tak

tly wonderful, mommie, that we don't just about starve, with me running the ranch! I kn

mes. Them eyes of his are pretty keen, and they see a whole lot; but they ain't easy to read, for all that. I guess Ward don't think it'

ie Fox is, though." Billy

he whole business." She rested her chin in her cupped palms and stared disconsolately at the high-piled hills behind which

rather carry it and have it sweet and fresh. Don't you go worrying because you can't do everything

e rode all over the country and looked up range conditions and prices. He didn't say so, but he made me feel foolish because I just bought the first ones I saw, without waiting to look around fi

hard worker always. You don't want to get all outa conceit with yourself just because Charlie Fox is gitting along all right. I don't know as it's so wonderfu

ot quite satisfied with the result. She had seen Charlie Fox spring up with a perfectly natural courtesy and hand Marthy a chair when she entered the room where he had been discussing books with Billy Louise. She had seen him stand beside his own chair

part of him. She had sensed dimly that some natures are too big and too strong for petty rules of deportment, and that Ward might sit all day in the house with his hat on his head and still be a gentleman of the finer sort. And yet, now that Charlie Fox had come and presented an example of the world's standard, Billy Louise could not, for the life of her, help wishing that Ward was different. And there were other things; things which Billy Louise was ashamed to recognize as influencing her in any way, and yet

y Louise? Seems to me it look

was Ward, all right, and his voice, lifted in a good-humored shout, brought Billy Louise to

like a spoken kiss, a certain young woman hated herself for a weak-souled traitor and mentall

ckled to death to

I guess I c

nd distilled water of a perfectly polite form of greeting? Not Billy Louise, if one might judge from that young woman's face and v

uise simply could not help admiring him and liking him for his frank good-nature and his kindness. She had never before met a man just like Charlie Fox, though she had known many who were what Ward once called "parlor-broke." She felt when she was with him that he had a strength to match Ward's strength; only, this strength was tamed and trained and smoothed so that it did not obtrude upon one's n

t his errand was not yet accomplished. She walked down with him to where

ing. But I am worried, Miss Louise. I came over to ask you if you've seen anything of four calves of ours. I know you ride a good deal, throug

for particulars. "I don't see how they could get away f

a is a little hard of hearing. She wouldn't hear anything unless there were considerable noise. I came home the next forenoon-I was over to Seabeck's-and the bars

lves," he said and laughed again. "They couldn't have gone through those bars or over them; and I did have a spark of intelligence and looked along the river for tracks, you know.

uise asked a question with the words, and made a stat

e, I'd work every other theory to death before I'd admit that possibility! I don'

are lots of strange men passing throug

f a theft once," he said. "The evidence was-or seemed-absolutely unassailable. And afterward he was exonerated completely; it was just a horrible mistake. But he left school under a cloud. His life was ruined by the blun

ey aren't with the rest of the cattle? I don't see how they could leave the Cove, unless they were driven out." She caught a twinkle of amusement in his eyes and stopped short. Of course, a mere girl should not take it for granted that a man had failed to do

utside. There isn't a trace of them anywhere. I had just bought them from Seabeck, you know. I drove them home, and because they were tired, and so was I, I just left them in that upper meadow as I came down the gorge. I hadn't branded them yet. I-I know I've made an awful botch of the thing, Miss Louise," he confessed, turning toward her with an honest distress and a self-flaying humility in his eyes that wiped from Billy Louise's mind any incipient tendency toward contempt. "But you see I'm green at this ranch game. And I never dreamed those calves weren

he said, after a minute of moody silence. "But seeing they were not branded yet-with our brand-I

ch game," he would have mentioned brands at first, as the most important point, instea

ng the smile so that it was merely a twi

er owner puts his brand in a different place to show that his ow

nce on the subject. "And I should have noticed it if I had seen four calves vented fresh and not rebranded. Why i

lie answered humbly. "I have done that before,

he retorted. "If you can't get a little bun

t and not be shy a cent at the end of the year. And I can strike out man after man-when I'm in good form; why, I've pitched whole games and never walked a man! And I can-but what's the use? I can't drive the cows up from pasture, it seems, without losing all the milk. And I

dryly. "You take that in the S

certainly does cost something, t

ng to sell a few head. Then he turned up, the biggest and fattest one in the bunch. You can't tell; they get themselves in queer places s

tone. That Charlie Fox did not, but accepted the spirit of help

als now, Miss Louise. I'll bet I know a lot more about the different strains of various breeds than you do, Miss Cattle-queen. But I'm beginning to see that we only know what we learn by e

His horse stood sidewise upon the trail for easier footing, and the man's head and shoulders were silhouetted sharply against the deep, clear blue of the sky. Billy Louise felt a little, unnamed thrill as she stared up at him. Her lips curved into tenderness. Clean, frank, easy-natured he was, as she had come to know him. It was like coming into a sunny spot

n." She gave him a final wave of the hand, as he turned to climb on out of sight. "And I don't even know wha

w Charlie again-it was like his innocence to forget the most essential details!-and she meant to keep her eyes open. If Charlie were right about the calves not being anywhere in the Cove, then the

tolen, then there was a "rustler" in the country. And if there were, then no one's stock was safe. The deduction was terribly simple and a

alves were a deep red, except for a wide, white strip on the nose of one and white hind feet on the other; that another was spotted on the hindqu

miry, by getting him in to the knees in spite of his violent objections. They left deep tracks behind them when they got out. The calves had not gone investigating the bank, for there was not a trace anywhere. And the bluff was absolutely unscalable. Billy Louise herself would have f

shall have it swing uphill, like this; and I'll have a weight arranged so that it will always close itself, if one is careless enough to ride on and leave it open. I have it all worke

absolute certainty. "Those calves were driven out of the gorge. That means stolen. You

lanced up speculative

rd, even, would try to leave the Cove over the bluff." Which certainly was a sweeping

hummers t

like that. You know yourself the

bring them back?" he cou

in front of a fact. We may as well admit to ourselves that th

I hate to think that. Aunt Martha insis

If you'll let down the bars, Mr. Fox, I'll hit the trail

t to be done. But winter was coming, and she would drive her stock down into the fields she had ready. They would be safe there, surely.