"You've got to have education to be able to enjoy money. Some of the sheepmen in this country--yes, most of them--would be better men if they were poor. Wealth is nothing to them but a dim consciousness of a new power. It makes them arrogant and unbearable. Did you ever see Matt Hall?" "I still have that pleasure in reserve. But I think you'll find it's refinement, rather than learning, that a person needs to enjoy wealth. That comes more from within than without." "The curtain's down between me and everything I want," Joan said, a wistful note of loneliness in her low, soft voice. "I'm going to ride away some day and push it aside, and see what it's been keeping from me all the years of my longing. Then, maybe, when I'm satisfied I'll come back and make money. I've got sense enough to see it's here to be made if a person's got the sheep to start with and the range to run them on." "Yes, you'll have to go," said he, in what seemed sad thoughtfulness, "to learn it all; I can't teach you the things your heart desires most to know. Well, there are bitter waters and sweet waters, Joan; we've got to drink them both." "It's the same way here," she said, "only we've got sense enough to know the alkali holes before we drink out of them." "But people are not that wise the world over, Joan." Joan stood in silent thought, her far-reaching gaze on the dim curtain of haze which hung between her and the world of men's activities, strivings, and lamentations. "If I had the money I'd go as soon--as soon as I knew a little more," she said. "But I've got to stick; I made that bargain with dad--he'd never give me the money, but he'll buy me out when I've got enough to stake me." "Your father was over this morning." "Yes, I know." "He thinks _my_ education's advanced far enough to trust me with a band of sheep. I'm going to have charge of the flock I've been running here with Dad Frazer." "I heard about it." "And you don't congratulate me on becoming a paid sheepherder, my first step on the way to flockmaster!" "I don't know that you're to be congratulated," she returned, facing him seriously. "All there is to success here is brute strength and endurance against storms and winter weather--it don't take any brains. Out there where you've been and I'm going, there must be something bigger and better for a man, it seems to me. But maybe men get tired of it--I don't know." "You'll understand it better when you go there, Joan." "Yes, I'll understand a lot of things that are locked up to me now. Well, I don't want to go as much all the time now as I did--only in spells sometimes. If you stay here and teach me, maybe I'll get over it for good." Joan laughed nervously, half of it forced, her face averted. "If I could teach you enough to keep you here, Joan, I'd think it was the biggest thing I'd ever done." "I don't want to know any more if it means giving up," she said.