dog this side Heaven.

'Just one girl,
There is just one girl;
There may be others, I know,
But they're not my pearl.
Sun or rain,
She is just the same;
I'll be happy forever with
Just one girl.'"

The song was coarse and toneless, but he knew no other way of voicing
it, and she noted nothing of its crudeness.

"Daddy, you're a base deceiver."

She was wagging an accusing finger before his eyes, and he blinked in
exaggerated concern.

"O' course," he admitted, "I don't say I've had much chance with more
than one. This job of mine is death to gallivanting. I wouldn't know
how to look at a woman now--not in a way that would mean she was more
to me than one of the same sex as the best little girl in the world."

But the silently accusing finger continued to wag.

"Honest, I don't know what you mean."

"What about the cow-girl last year that you bought the horses from?"

He chuckled deep in his throat.

"Shucks! I know a pretty girl when I see one, that's all. I knew how
to appreciate that skin of hers, and her riding, and the way she lifted
her feet when she walked, and how she wore her clothes--though they
weren't much, were they? And I bet they don't half prize her where she
comes from. A chap like me who's known the two best women in the world
can spot a real pippin any time; and he sort of owes it to the world to
pass the message along. Shucks, girl! You didn't think--say, you
didn't think I was sidling up to her, or anything like that? All I did
was to touch her arm. I wanted to see if they were all alike, like
yours. And look what she gave me!"

He made a grimace and drew a finger along a dim line cutting down his
cheek.

"She couldn't have been the nice girl I thought," he reflected, "or she
wouldn't have got on her high-and-mighty just for a little thing like
that."

"Anyway," sighed the girl, snuggling deeper in his arms, "I was real
proud of you when she brought that quirt across your face, and your
cheek all bleeding, and it looked as if your eye was gone. You just
laughed and borrowed my handkerchief."

He laughed again now. "You didn't think I'd slam at her with one of
these big fists, did you? I believe I kind of enjoyed wiping away the
blood."

"And you paid her every cent without a word."

"O' course! That hadn't anything to do with our little tiff. Didn't I
owe the money? I got them horses cheap enough, goodness knows! I'd
take a thousand of the