He looked oneasy again, got red some, and begun workin' his nose up and down like a rabbit. "Aw, thunder!" he says, "what you astin' _that_ fer? A man--_any_ man--when he marries, oughta have a place big enough so's his chickens can kick up the dirt 'round his house without its fallin' into somebody else's yard. Out here, where the hull blamed country's land--just land fer miles--a man oughta have a piece, say--wal, as big as--as that Andrews chunk of mine." (When Billy married Rose, Sewell bought over the Andrews' ranch, y' savvy. Wanted it 'cause it laid 'twixt hisn and town, and had a fine water-hole fer the stock. But a good share of the hunderd acres in it wasn't much to brag on--just crick-bottom.) "The Andrews place?" I says, smooth and easy. "Wal, Sewell, I'll keep that in mind. And, now, you spoke of cows----" "Fifty 'r so," puts in the ole man, quick, like as if he was 'shamed of hisself. (His ranges is plumb _alive_ with cattle.) "A start, Cupid,--just a start." Wal, a-course, whatever he said went with _me_. If he'd 'a' _ad_vised walkin' on my hands as far as Albuquerque, you'd 'a' saw me a-startin', spurs in the air! "So long," I says then, and walked off. When I turned round, a little bit later, Sewell was standin' there yet, haid down, shoulders hunched over, arms a-hangin' loose at his sides, and all his fingers twitchin'. As I clumb on to that pinto bronc of mine and steered her outen the gate, I couldn't help but think that, all of a suddent, seems like, the boss looked a mighty lot _older_. "Maud," I says, as I loped fer town, "Maud, I'm shore feazed! I been believin', since I got back from Noo York, that it was settled I was to marry Mace. And here, if I don't watch out, that Injun-giver'll take her back. I was a blamed idjit to give him any love-talk. The only thing he cares fer is money--money!" Wal, some men 're like that--and tighter'n a wood-tick. When they go to pay out a dollar, they hole on to it so hard they plumb pull it outen shape, yas, ma'am. Why, I can recollect seein' dollars that looked like the handle of a jack-knife. But if I was brash in front of Sewell, I caved in all right when I got to Briggs City. Say! did you ever have the blues--so bad you didn't want to eat, and you didn't want to talk, and you didn't want to drink, but just wanted to lay, nose in the pilla, and think and think and think? Wal, fer three days, that was me! And I was still sullin' when Sheriff Bergin come stompin' in with a copy of the Goldstone _Tarantula_. "Here's bum luck!" he growls. "A-course _Briggs_ couldn't hump herself none; but that jay town down the line has to go have a boom." "A boom?" I says, settin' up. "Reg'lar rip-snorter of a Kansas boom. Some Chicago fellers with a lot of cash has turned up and is a-buyin' in all the sand. Wouldn't it make y' _sick?_"