They passed through another gate, went up a graceful rise, into a field, along a broad path hedged with vines and flowers. "Just look at this!" she said. "There ain't better land in this county, and here it lies all gone to waste. The men out here ain't worth the powder and lead it would take to kill 'em. I've rented this farm half a dozen times in the last three years. And what do they do? Get so drunk Sunday that it takes them nearly all week to sober up. I've had to drive 'em away. And the last one! Mercy sakes! The biggest fool that ever made a track; and a hypercrit with it. I found him in the corner of the fence prayin' for rain. Well, I just gathered a bridle and slipped up on him, and if his prayer didn't have a hot end I don't know beans when I see 'em. There was a streak of barbed wire on the fence, and in tryin' to get over he got tangled; and if I didn't give it to him! The idea of a fool gettin' down on his knees tryin' to persuade the Lord to change his mind! All that belongs to me," she went on, waving her hand--"best farm right now in Lake County. And there's the house on the hill, as nice a cottage as you'd want to live in. What do you think of it all?" "Charming," said Milford. "There's many an old cow in the West that would like to stick her nose up to her eyes into this rich grass." "You bet, Bill! Are you from the West?" "Yes, from all over the West. I used to herd cattle; I tried to raise sheep--and I could have done something, but I was restless and wanted to stir about. But I've got over that. Now I want to work." "That's the way I like to hear a man talk," she said, lifting the latch of a gate. "I don't believe you'd pray for rain." "The only thing worth prayin' for, madam, is a soul." "Good enough! Bill, I like you. They say you have to eat a barrel of salt with a man before you know him, and I reckon it's true. But I've eaten so many barrels of salt with men that I know one as far as I can see him. You don't profess to be so awful honest, do you?" There was hollowness in his laugh, and bitterness in his smile. "I haven't made any pretensions," he said. "Well, you just keep still and don't make any," she replied.