he handed the
bottle back, and wiped his lips with the sleeve of his coat, "and
nothin' happened to hinder or delay us in the least. Instead of gittin'
warmer as the day wore on, it kept gittin' a dern sight colder, until
along about four o'clock in the afternoon, when it began to snow, and by
early dark, it was hard at it, a regular December snow-storm, with a
drivin' wind that cut our faces tremendous. This bothered us a good
deal, for the snow being wet and sticky, would ball up on the horses'
feet so that they could hardly stand, and we just poked along our way at
a gait not a bit faster than a slow walk. We couldn't get along any
faster, and it was no use a-beatin' the poor critters, for they was
a-doin' all in their power, and a-strainin' every nerve to keep
a-movin'.

"The old ranchman was a good-hearted, sociable old fellow, and he didn't
seem to mind the storm a bit. As we plodded along he talked about his
cattle ranch, the price of cattle, and what profit he had made that
year. It was along after dinner, and we had both been strikin' the
bottle pretty regular, although the cold was so great we could hardly
feel it, when he fell to talkin' about himself and his daughter. We were
the only two outside, and he became quite confidential like, and I
pitied the old man, for he'd had a deal of trouble with the young
spitfire inside.

"Among other things, he told me that she had almost broken his old heart
lately by fallin' in love, or imaginin' she had, with one of his
herdsmen, a handsome, dashing, devil-may-care sort of a fellow he had
picked up at Bozeman and taken out to his ranch about a year before.
When the old man found out that the gal was gone on the fellow, and that
he was a-meetin' her after dark, he ups and discharges him instanter,
and gives him a piece of his mind about his takin' a mean advantage of
the confidence which had been placed in him.

"His daughter, Stella, as he called her, fought against his dischargin'
of the young man, and had been sullen and ill-tempered ever since her
lover left. He had caught them correspondin' with each other after that,
and on one occasion he was certain they had a clandestine meetin'. On
findin' out that his daughter was determined not to give up this
worthless young cuss, the old man made up his mind to take her away, and
he had accordin'ly packed up and gone on a long journey to the East,
where he had stayed several months, and they were now just gettin' back