to give up chewing? Somehow, a halo don't seem to fit my haid. It's
most too bald to carry one graceful.... You may do that again if you
want to." This last, apropos of the promised reward which had just
been paid in full.

Arlie found she could manage a little laugh by this time.

"Well, if you ain't going to, we might as well go in and have a look
at that false-alarm patient of ours," he continued. "We'll have to sit
up all night with him. I was sixty-three yesterday. I'm going to quit
this doctor game. I'm too old to go racing round the country nights
just because you young folks enjoy shooting each other up. Yes, ma'am,
I'm going to quit. I serve notice right here. What's the use of having
a good ranch and some cattle if you can't enjoy them?"

As the doctor had been serving notice of his intention to quit
doctoring for over ten years, Arlie did not take him too seriously.
She knew him for what he was-- a whimsical old fellow, who would drop
in the saddle before he would let a patient suffer; one of the old
school, who loved his work but liked to grumble over it.

"Maybe you'll be able to take a rest soon. You know that young doctor
from Denver, who was talking about settling here----"

This, as she knew, was a sore point with him. "So you're tired of me,
are you? Want a new-fangled appendix cutter from Denver, do you? Time
to shove old Doc Lee aside, eh?"

"I didn't say that, doc," she repented.