"If I could talk that way I'd go out and preach about it, Bill." "Not with my record behind you, old fellow." "But why should a man that believes as you do have a record to hold him down?" "There you've got me. That's what I'd like to know. But when a man has learned to understand himself, then all things may become clear. We sometimes say that it was not natural for a man to do a certain thing. The fact is, it's natural for a man to do almost anything that he can do." "This is good Sunday mornin' talk, all right, Bill. But I've got to go after my girl. She's got lots of sense, horse sense and flap-doodle sense all mixed up. She's got more flap-doodle sense than I have; she reads books, and not long ago she give me a piece of poetry that she'd cut out of a newspaper. I said, 'Read her off and take her back.' And she did. Well, I'm off." Milford hailed a man who drove up in a buggy, gave ten cents for a Sunday newspaper, and sat on the veranda to read it. The wind blew a sheet out into the yard. He started after it, but halted, looking at a man who was crossing the field where the oats had been reaped, striding with basket and rod toward the lake. Milford left the paper to the wind. He hastened to the woods between the oat field and the lake and waited for the man, leaning musingly against a tree. The man got over the fence and came along the path. Milford stepped out. "Good-morning, Mr. Dorsey." "Why, helloa. How's everything?" "All right, I hope. Are you done with that horse?" "Oh, that horse. Yes, I'm about done with him." "Hold on. I want him." "What do you mean?" "You remember the last time we met I--well, we'll say, I let you have a horse." "You mean we fought over yonder in the grove." "That's what I mean." "Well, what about it?" "We are going to fight over here in this grove." "Why, I thought you had enough?" "I did have then, but I want more. I said then that I'd never been beaten for long at a time. I've been waiting for you." "A man don't have to wait for me very long. But say, this is all rank foolishness. I've got nothing against you; and as for what I said about the woman, why, I'm willing to apologize, although I don't know what it was." "You will apologize, but not till I get through with you. Take off your coat." "You beat any fellow I ever saw. I don't want to fight; I want to fish." "I don't want to fish, I want to fight. Take off your coat or I'll knock you down in it." "All right, my son." He threw his coat on a stump. Milford was in his shirt sleeves. "Wait a moment," said Dorsey. "You have brought this thing about, and I want to tell you that I won't let you off as easy as I did the last time."