Then, too, there was Jed, the big-hearted, beside him. And Jed was saying, after a long silence, as though he still thought of his theme: "Yes, sir, us men can do any old thing if we only think so! Nothin' has ever been too much for us; nothin' ever will—if we only keep on thinkin' as men ought to think an' respectin' ourselves."
Thus they traveled, side by side, the one fighting, the other uttering his homely truths and watching, always watching, noting effects, detecting temptations when the strain across the worried brow and about the tight mouth approached the breaking point. With keen intuition he went down into the young fellow and found the vibrating chord, the one that had been set humming by scorn and distrust. But instead of abusing it, instead of goading it on, Jed nursed it, fed it, strengthening the chord itself with his philosophy and his optimism.
They went on down Ant Creek, past the ranches which spread across the narrow valley. Again they slept under the open skies, and Danny once more marveled at the stars.
That second morning was agony, but Jed knew no relenting.
"You're sore an' stiff," he said, "but keepin' at a thing when it hurts is what counts, is what gets a feller well—an' that applies to more things than saddle sores, too."
He said the last as though aside, but the point carried.
At the mouth of the creek, where it flows into Clear River, they swung to the west and went downstream. Danny's condition became only semi-conscious. His head hung, his eyes were but half opened. Living resolved itself into three things. First and second: the thundering demands and the stubborn resistance of his will. When Jed spoke and roused him the remaining element come to the fore: his physical suffering. That agony became more and more acute as the miles passed, but in spite of its sharpness it required the influence of his companion's voice to awaken him to its reality.
Always, in a little back chamber of his mind, was a bit of glowing warmth—his newly born love for the man who rode beside him.
It was night when they reached the ranch.
"We're arrived, sonny! This is home!" cried Jed, slapping Danny on the shoulder. "Our home."