I've given you the best schooling of any girl on the river, and I'd have sent you out to a convent in the States, but I couldn't let you go so far away--God! I loved you too much for that--I couldn't do it, girl.

I've tried, but you're all I've got, and I'm a selfish man, I reckon." "No, no! You're not," his daughter cried, impulsively.

"You're everything that's good and dear, but you've lived a different life from other men and you see things differently.

It was mean of me to talk as I did." She put her arms around his neck and hugged him.

"But I'm very unhappy, dad." "Don't you aim to tell what started this ?" he said, gently, caressing her with his great, hard hand as softly as a mother.