"You shut up, Ernest!" exclaimed Roger. "Don't pay any attention to him, Felicia."
"I won't," replied the child. "But I'll keep right on liking him, next to you."
"I see some work ahead for me!" ejaculated Dick.
Charley refilled Dick's coffee cup and smiled at him.
"I'll bet on you, Dicky," she said. "We'll have supper at six, Roger. I've put up a lunch for you two men."
"By Jove," said Ernest, "we'll have to supply water to this ranch for nothing, Rog."
"Right!" answered Roger, rising. "Come ahead, old man."
It was not yet eight when they drove out of the corral, along the line of fence that edged Dick's prospective alfalfa field. There was a monument, Dick said, at the southwest corner of the field that would start them on their way. Neither man spoke for some time, then Ernest remarked in his gentle voice:
"Extraordinarily lovely girl!"
Roger grunted.