rooved the
trail and the reliable Doughnut side-stepped expertly. "This is fine!"

"I couldn't wait," she said. "I have been waiting too long already. So
when Turkey came home I came to meet you."

"We had to travel slowly. And somebody had to tell Kathleen. I thought
it was better that I should."

"I am very sorry for her."

"So am I. But tell me about yourself. How does it feel to be a grass
widow?"

"I'm not going to tell you. I've been worried. I suppose I've been
silly. But Jean will tell you all about that. She was aways telling me
not to worry, cheering me up."

"Has she made it up with Chetwood yet?"

"Well, my goodness!" Faith exclaimed.

"Why, they're not married, are they?"

"No. Why, it went clean out of my mind, but this afternoon when I saw
Turkey coming, I ran down to meet him and came around the corner of the
wagon shed, and there the two of them were. And they looked as if they
had been--well, you know."

"Kissing each other?"

"Yes, it looked like that."

But the ranch came in sight, its broad, fertile acres dim in the fading
light. The smell of the fresh earth of fall plowing struck the nostrils,
and a tang of wood smoke from new clearing. From the corrals came the
voices of cattle. A colt whinnied in youthful falsetto for his dam. All
sounds carried far in the hush of evening.

"Seems odd to think this will be broken up," Angus said. "Houses and
streets on the good land; maybe a church on that knoll, a school over
yonder. I ought to be glad, because it means money. But I'm not."

"I know," his wife nodded wisely. "I've been a wanderer and a city
dweller most of my life, but I can understand how the one spot on all
the earth may claim a man. And you'll always want a ranch, and stock,
and wide spaces, no matter how much money you have. Oh, yes, boy, I
know."

"I guess you are right," he admitted. "I grew up that way. Well,
there's plenty of time to think it over. I can take another crop off
this." He lifted his head and sniffed the air. "Old girl," he said, "I
believe I smell grub--real grub--cooking. And I haven't had a real meal
for three days. We were sort of shy coming out, you know."

"My heavens!" Faith cried, "Turkey said the same thing. When I left he
was telling Mrs. Foley he would marry her for a pie. Let's hurry."

Some hours later Angus, shaven and fed, sat with Faith enjoying rest and
tobacco. It was good to lie back in a chair, to relax, to be in a house
again prote