The girl stood back and looked him over. Tall as Tom was she came almost to his chin. He saw her eyes darken like the sky at dusk, and it seemed to him quite possible that stars could shine in them.
“You’d be taking as great a chance as I would. I haven’t any ranch or any cattle, or anything at all but myself and two trunks full of clothes and some things in my life I want to forget. And I have sixty cents in my purse. I can’t cook anything except to toast marshmallows––”
“I’ve got a cook,” put in young Tom quickly.
“And the clothes I’ve got would be a joke out here. And the things I came out here to forget I shall never tell you––”
“I ain’t interested enough to ask, or to listen if you told me,” said Tom.
“And myself can sing to you and dance to you, and I’m twenty years old by the family Bible––”
“I’m twenty-two––makes it about right,” said Tom.
“And if you should count fifty and ask me again––”
“Ten, twenty, thirty, forty-fifty, will you marry me?” obeyed Tom with much alacrity.