“I am going to marry Joan.”
“Oh, you’ve got it all settled? Did Joan wear your ring when she went home?”
“No, she didn’t wear my ring, Mary, but she would have worn it if I’d seen her before she was sent away.”
“I thought you were at the bottom of it, John,” the wise Mary said. “You know, dad’s taken her sheep away from her, and she had a half-interest in at least a thousand head.”
“I didn’t know that, but it will not make any difference to Joan and me. But why hasn’t she been over to see me, Mary?”
“Oh, dad’s sore at her because she put her foot down 255 flat when she heard it was fixed for her to marry Earl. She told dad to take his sheep and go to the devil––she was going to go away and work somewhere else. He made her go home and stay there like a rabbit in a box––wouldn’t let her have a horse.”
“Of course; I might have known it. I wonder if she knows I’m up?”
“She knows, all right. Charley slips word to her.”
“Charley’s a good fellow, and so are you,” Mackenzie said, giving Mary his hand.
“You’ll get her, and it’s all right,” Mary declared, in great confidence. “It’ll take more than bread and water to tame Joan.”