He's good at handlin' stock.
Thet boy will be a rich rancher some day." "Strange, then, you never liked him," murmured Columbine.

She felt ashamed of the good it did her to hear Wilson praised.
"No, it ain't strange.

I have my own reasons," replied Belllounds, gruffly, as he resumed eating.
Columbine believed she could guess the cause of the old rancher's unreasonable antipathy for this cowboy.

Not improbably it was because Wilson had always been superior in every way to Jack Belllounds.

The boys had been natural rivals in everything pertaining to life on the range.