I've talked it over with your mother, and she'll bide by your decision, as I shall do.
"So I put it in a nutshell, Robert.

You're twenty-one to-day; a man grown, and husky as they're made.

'Tis time you faced the world and lived your life.

You've been a good lad--as lads go." He stopped there to rub his jaw thoughtfully, perhaps remembering certain incidents in Buddy's full-flavored past.

Buddy--grown to plain Bud among his fellows--turned red without losing the line of hardness that had come to his lips.
"You're of legal age to be called a man, and the future's before ye.
I'll give ye five hundred cows with their calves beside them--you can choose them yourself, for you've a sharp eye for stock--and you can go where ye will.