An' it wasn't more than a year after that till Mary died.

We never did know just what was the matter with her--an' after that it seemed like John never was the same.

He got killed in the rodeo that same fall--just wasn't himself somehow.

I was with him when he died.
"Stella and me raised Phil--we don't know any difference between him and one of our own boys.

The old homestead is his, of course, but Jim Reid's stock runs on the old range.