I get you, perfectly.
Why not let papa's hired man take care of himself ?" Mary V flushed angrily.

Johnny was reminding her of the very beginning of their serial quarrel, when he had overheard her telling a girl guest at the ranch that Johnny Jewel was "only one of my father's hired men." Mary V had not been able to explain to Johnny that the girl guest had exhibited altogether too great an interest in his youth and his good looks, and had frankly threatened a flirtation.

The girl guest was something of the snob, and Mary V had taken the simplest, surest way of squelching her romantic interest.

She had done that effectually, but she had also given Johnny Jewel a mortal wound in the very vitals of his young egotism.
"We are so short-handed this season!" Mary V explained sweetly.

"And dad is so stubborn, he'd fire the last man on the ranch if he caught him doing things he didn't like.