If men were honest there would be no need to scar cattle.

He had never in the least desired to own land and droves of stock, and make deals with ranchmen, deals advantageous to himself.

Why should a man want to make a deal or trade a horse or do a piece of work to another man's disadvantage?
Self-preservation was the first law of life.

But as the plants and trees and birds and beasts interpreted that law, merciless and inevitable as they were, they had neither greed nor dishonesty.

They lived by the grand rule of what was best for the greatest number.
But Dale's philosophy, cold and clear and inevitable, like nature itself, began to be pierced by the human appeal in Helen Rayner's words.
What did she mean?
Not that he should lose his love of the wilderness, but that he realize himself! Many chance words of that girl had depth.
He was young, strong, intelligent, free from taint of disease or the fever of drink.