Same as the rest of us have been ranching," he added ruefully, turning to Luck.

"With the best intentions in the world, the Lord never meant us fellers for farmers, and that's a fact.

We'll drop a hoe any time of day or night to get out riding after stock.

Of course, we didn't take up our claims with the idea of settling down and riding a hoe handle the rest of our lives.

If we had, I guess maybe we'd have done a little better at it." "We did what we started out to do," the Native Son pointed out lazily: "We saved the range--what little there is to save--and we kept a lot of poor yaps from starving to death on that land, didn't we ?" He smiled slowly.