pressed.

"Hm," he remarked. "Well, one will be a gain, and the other won't be no
loss."

"Poor Shorty!" said the Virginian. "Poor fool!"

Scipio was less compassionate. "No," he persisted, "I ain't sorry for
him. Any man old enough to have hair on his face ought to see through
Trampas."

The Virginian looked out of the window again, and watched Shorty and
Trampas as they rode in the distance. "Shorty is kind to animals," he
said. "He has gentled that hawss Pedro he bought with his first money.
Gentled him wonderful. When a man is kind to dumb animals, I always say
he had got some good in him."

"Yes," Scipio reluctantly admitted. "Yes. But I always did hate a fool."

"This hyeh is a mighty cruel country," pursued the Virginian. "To
animals that is. Think of it! Think what we do to hundreds an' thousands
of little calves! Throw 'em down, brand 'em, cut 'em, ear mark 'em, turn
'em loose, and on to the next. It has got to be, of course. But I say
this. If a man can go jammin' hot irons on to little calves and slicin'
pieces off 'em with his knife, and live along, keepin' a kindness for
animals in his heart, he has got some good in him. And that's what
Shorty has got. But he is lettin' Trampas get a hold of him, and both of
them will leave us." And the Virginian looked out across the huge winter
whiteness again. But the riders had now vanished behind some foot-hills.

Scipio sat silent. He had never put these thoughts about men and animals
to himself, and when they were put to him, he saw that they were true.

"Queer," he observed finally

"What?"

"Everything."

"Nothing's queer," stated the Virginian, "except marriage and lightning.
Them two occurrences can still give me a sensation of surprise."

"All the same it is queer," Scipio insisted

"Well, let her go at me."

"Why, Trampas. He done you dirt. You pass that over. You could have
fired him, but you let him stay and keep his job. That's goodness. And
badness is resultin' from it, straight. Badness right from goodness."

"You're off the trail a whole lot," said the Virginian.

"Which side am I off, then?"

"North, south, east, and west. First point. I didn't expect to do
Trampas any good by not killin' him, which I came pretty near doin'
three times. Nor I didn't expect to do Trampas any good by lettin' him
keep his job. But I am foreman of this ranch. And I can sit and tell all
men to their face: 'I was above that meanness.' Point two: it ain't a