I told her so, too," he finished savagely.
"And what did she say ?" asked the shepherd quietly, his eyes on the girl below.
"Just said, kind o' short like, that she reckoned I could.

Then I come away." The girl finished her letter, and, after another long call for Dad, moved on over the shoulder of the mountain.

Pete, who had withdrawn a little way from his companions, was busily talking in his strange manner to his unseen friends.
Then Young Matt opened his heart to the shepherd and told him all.
It was the old, old story; and, as Mr.Howitt listened, dreams that he had thought dead with the death of his only son, stirred again in his heart, and his deep voice was vibrant with emotion as he sought to comfort the lad who had come to him.
While they talked, the sun dropped until its lower edge touched the top of the tallest pine on Wolf Ridge, and the long shadows lay over the valley below.

"I'm mighty sorry I let go and cuss, Dad," finished, the boy.

"But I keep a holdin' in, and a holdin' in, 'til I'm plumb wild; then something happens like that letter, and I go out on the range and bust.