United States or Namibia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
But he spoke with effort. "It can't be helped. It was all unavoidable." "The most appalling thing to me is the fact that not even your daughter's popularity can neutralize the gossip of a woman like Mrs. Belden. My being an outsider counts against Berrie, and I'm ready to do anything anything," he repeated, earnestly. "I love your daughter, Mr.
Norcross get his fall?" "On the way back." Here Berrie hesitated again. "I don't like to tell you, mother, but he didn't fall, Cliff jumped him and tried to kill him." The mother doubted her ears. "Cliff did? How did he happen to meet you?" Berrie was quick to answer. "I don't know how he found out we were on the trail. I suppose the old lady 'phoned him.
Yancy, who was waiting on the table, put in a word: "I'll board ye free, Berrie, if you'll jest naturally turn up here regular at meal-time. You do take the fellers' appetites. It's the only time I make a cent." To the Eastern man this was all very unrestrained and deeply diverting.
And to her mother she added: "I'll pull in about dark." The mother offered no objection to her daughter's plan, and the young people rode off together directly toward the high peaks to the east. "I'm going by way of the cut-off," Berrie explained; and Norcross, content and unafraid, nodded in acquiescence.
After he went away Berrie turned to her mother with a look in which humor and awe were blent. "Am I dreaming, mother, or am I actually sitting here in the city? My head is dizzy with it all." Then, without waiting for an answer, she fervently added: "Isn't he fine! I'm the tenderfoot now. I hope his father won't despise me."
Meeker read Sutler's letter, which Norcross had handed him, and, after deliberation, remarked: "All right, we'll do the best we can for you, Mr. Norcross; but we haven't any fancy accommodations." "He don't expect any," replied Berrie. "What he needs is a little roughing it." "There's plinty of that to be had," said one of the herders, who sat below the salt. "'is the soft life I'm nadin'."
He admired the ease and skill with which the older man put his shining blade through the largest bole, and wondered if he could ever learn to do as well. "One of the first essentials of a ranger's training is to learn to swing an ax," remarked McFarlane, "and you never want to be without a real tool. I won't stand for a hatchet ranger." Berrie called attention to the marks on the trees.
Then slipping away out of earshot he broke an armful of dry fir branches to heap above the wet, charred logs. Soon these twigs broke into flame, and Berrie, awakened by the crackle of the pine branches, called out: "Is it daylight?" "Yes, but it's a very dark daylight. Don't leave your warm bed for the dampness and cold out here; stay where you are; I'll get breakfast." "How are you this morning?
Our bungalow is on the other side of the river and you, too," she addressed Berrie; but her tone was so conventionally polite that the ranch-girl, burning with jealous heat, made no reply. McFarlane led the way to the lake rapidly and in silence.
The return of the crew from the corral cut short this conference, and when McFarlane went in Berrie greeted him with such frank and joyous expression that all his fears vanished. "Did you come over the high trail?" she asked. "No, I came your way. I didn't want to take any chances on getting mired.
Word Of The Day