“You’re a good deal like a son to him, I imagine. You can do about all that a boy can do, anyhow—more than I could ever do. Does he realize how much you have to do with the management of his forest? I’ve never seen your like. I really believe you could carry on the work as well as he.”
She flushed with pleasure. “You seem to think I’m a district forester in disguise.”
“I have eyes, Miss Supervisor, and also ears—which leads me to ask: Why don’t you clean out that saloon gang? Landon is sure there’s crooked work going on at that mill—certainly that open bar is a disgraceful and corrupting thing.”
Her face clouded. “We’ve tried to cut out that saloon, but it can’t be done. You see, it’s on a patented claim—the claim was bogus, of course, and we’ve made complaint, but the matter is hung up, and that gives ’em a chance to go on.”
“Well, let’s not talk of that. It’s too delicious an hour for any question of business. It is a moment for poetry. I wish I could write what I feel this moment. Why don’t we camp here and watch the sun go down and the moon rise? From our lofty vantage-ground the coming of dawn would be an epic.”
“We mustn’t think of that,” she protested. “We must be going.”
“Not yet. The hour is too perfect. It may never come again. The wind in the pines, the sunshine, the conies crying from their rocks, the butterflies on the clover—my heart aches with the beauty of it. It’s been a wonderful trip. Even that staggering walk in the rain had its splendid quality. I couldn’t see the poetry in it then; but I do now. These few days have made us comrades, haven’t they—comrades of the trail? You have been very considerate of me.” He took her hand. “I’ve never seen such hands. They are like steel, and yet they are feminine.”
She drew her hands away. “I’m ashamed of my hands—they are so big and rough and dingy.”
“They’re brown, of course, and calloused—a little—but they are not big, and they are beautifully modeled.” He looked at her speculatively. “I am wondering how you would look in conventional dress.”
“Do you mean—” She hesitated. “I’d look like a gawk in one of those low-necked outfits. I’d never dare—and those tight skirts would sure cripple me.”