uncomfortable store-clothes, and parade before the country and
city girls and try to persuade the one I can get,
probably----not the one I would want----to marry me, and
come here and spoil all our good times? Do we want
a woman around scolding if we are away from home,
whining because she is lonesome, fretting for luxuries
we cannot afford to give her? Are you going to let us in
for a scrape like that, Bel?''

The bewildered dog could bear the unusual scene no
longer. Taking the rising inflection, that sounded more
familiar, for a cue, and his name for a certainty, he
sprang forward, his tail waving as his nose touched the
face of the Harvester. Then he shot across the driveway
and lay in the spice thicket, half the ribs of one
side aching, as he howled from the lowest depths of
dog misery.

``You ungrateful cur!'' cried the Harvester. ``What
has come over you? Six years I have trusted you, and
the answer has been right, every time! Confound your
picture! Sentence me to tackle the girl proposition! I
see myself! Do you know what it would mean? For
the first thing you'd be chained, while I pranced over the
country like a half-broken colt, trying to attract some
girl. I'd have to waste time I need for my work and
spend money that draws good interest while we sleep, to
tempt her with presents. I'd have to rebuild the cabin
and there's not a chance in ten she would not fret the life
out of me whining to go to the city to live, arrange for her