He was accurately aware, too, of his father's weakness for him, an only child, and of his father's inclination to indulge his desires; and shrewdly played upon the fact.

Nevertheless, in matters of business he possessed a certain sharpness.
"Stevenson sold the ranch to this young man Bryant, who just now paid off the mortgage," Menocal explained.
"Then he was stung," Charlie averred.
"Wait, you don't know all, my son.

He plans to build a dam and a canal and use that old water right out of the Pinas, taking the water with which we irrigate the farms down at Rosita.

It will leave them dry; the alfalfa will die; no more grain or peas or beans will be raised on them; they won't have even good pasturage; they will go back to sagebrush and cactus--all those farms, all those beautiful ranches! Altogether four or five thousand acres! They are worth two hundred thousand dollars now--to-morrow worth nothing! Half my winter hay comes from them; half my peas for fattening lambs.

I shall have to sell part of my sheep.