"You've brought back my interest in simple things--and life seems worth while when I'm with you." He shook her hand and then dropped it.

"Well, so long." "So long!" she said, and added, with another attempt at brightness, "and don't stay away too long, and don't fail to let me know when you make the circuit." As he mounted his horse he remembered that there was another good-by to speak, and that was to Cora.
"I wish these women would let a man go without saying good-by at all," he thought in irritation, but the patter of Kintuck's feet set his thought in other directions.

As he topped the divide, he drew rein and looked at the great range to the southeast, lit by the dull red light of the sun, which had long since set to the settlers in the valley.

His heart was for a moment divided.

The joys of the trail--the care-free life--perhaps after all the family life was not for him.