“You forget you’re from Texas,” he replied.
“Cain’t it be helped?” she repeated, stubbornly.
“No!” he declared, with deep, hoarse passion.
“Why not?”
“Wal, we sheepmen are goin’ to run sheep anywhere we like on the range. An’ cattlemen won’t stand for that.”
“But, dad, it’s so foolish,” declared Ellen, earnestly. “Y’u sheepmen do not have to run sheep over the cattle range.”
“I reckon we do.”
“Dad, that argument doesn’t go with me. I know the country. For years to come there will be room for both sheep and cattle without overrunnin’. If some of the range is better in water and grass, then whoever got there first should have it. That shore is only fair. It’s common sense, too.”
“Ellen, I reckon some cattle people have been prejudicin’ you,” said Jorth, bitterly.
“Dad!” she cried, hotly.