human
Well, I got here, Endicott, but it was a considerable chore. Ain't as young as I was once. Time I was lettin' go, I guess. Seventy years old--an' young-hearted as any buck on the range--but along towards night, after a hard day's ride, I find myself beginin' to realize I be'n somewheres, an' the old bed-roll looks better to me than a carload of white-faces.
gpt
I hope I shall be half the man you are at your age,
human
You will be--if you buy the Y Bar outfit. Believe me young man, there's enough to do around that outfit to keep a man up an' jumpin' if he was a hundred an' seventy. A man just naturally ain't got time to get old!
gpt
Win tells me the ranch is sixty miles from here, smiled Alice,
human
Pretty good ride! Young woman, if that was all the ridin' I done today I'd b'en here before breakfast. I couldn't get away till afternoon--up before daylight this mornin', rode two horses plumb off their feet huntin' the wagons--foreman quit yesterday--best blamed foreman I ever had, too. Just up an' quit cold because he took a notion. Tried every which way to get him to stay--might's well talk to a rock. Away he went, Lord knows where, leavin' me nothin' on my mind except bein' owner, manager, ranch boss, an' wagon boss, besides tryin' to sell the outfit. Confounded young whelp! Best doggone cow-hand on the range.
gpt
Why did you have to hunt wagons, and what has a wagon boss got to do with a cattle ranch?
human
The wagons are the round-up--the rodeo. We're right in the middle of the calf round-up. The grub wagon an' the bed wagon makes what you might call the field headquarters for the round-up--move every day till they cover the whole range.
gpt
How interesting! exclaimed the girl,
human
I know I'm going to love it!
gpt
Sure is interesting, remarked the old man, drily,
human
By the way, said Endicott,
gpt
Mr. Cameron tells me that the cattle and sheep situation is a rather delicate one hereabouts. He says that you hold the respect of both factions--that you seem to have a peculiar knack in keeping the situation in hand----
human
Peculiar knack! exclaimed the ranchman,
gpt
I am not afraid of it. I only wanted to know----
human
An' you've got a right to know. If we deal, I'll stay with you long enough to wise you up to the whole layout. That would be no more than right. I'm considerable used to judgin' men, an' I think you can handle it. Let 'em know right off the reel that you ain't afraid of any of 'em--an' get this before you start out: A man ain't God A'mighty because he happens to run cattle, an' he ain't the Devil because he runs sheep, neither. There's cattlemen on this range I wouldn't trust as far as I could throw a bull by the tail, an' there's sheep-men can have anything I've got just on their say-so--mind you, that ain't the general run--pickin' 'em in the dark, I'd tie to a cow-man every time--but there's exceptions, as the fellow says, to every rule. If that confounded Tex hadn't quit----
gpt
Yes, my foreman. Best man on the range--handled men the easiest you ever saw. Never had any trouble with the sheep outfits--but just the same, there ain't a sheep-man south of the river that would care to try to put anything over on him--nor no one else, neither. There ain't any bluff an' bluster about him, he's the quietest hand you ever saw. But, somehow, lookin' into them eyes of his--a man just naturally stops to think--that's all.
human
Oh, what is he like? Tell me about him! What is his name?
gpt
Name's Tex. That's all I know, an' that's all----
human
Tex Benton?
gpt
Maybe, or, Tex Smith, or Tex Jones, or Tex somethin else.
human
I--we knew a Tex, once----
gpt
There's lots of Texes here in the cow-country. Tryin' to find one that you didn't know no more about than that would be like me goin' East an' sayin' I knew a man by the name of John.
human
How long has he worked for you?
gpt
He quit last evenin'. If he'd of stayed till day after tomorrow, it would have been just a year. The old man's voice had softened, and his gaze strayed to the far hills.
human
I made him foreman when he'd b'en with me a month, he continued after a short pause.
gpt
I can pick men. Another pause.
human
He--he called me 'Dad'.
gpt
Did he know you were going to sell?
human
Then, why did he quit?