Page:Ruth Fielding at Silver Ranch.djvu/200

190 "I—I'm suah in love with yuh, Sally! That's what's the matter with me. Now, don't you laugh—I mean it."

"Well, my soul!" exclaimed the practical Sally, "don't let it take such a hold on you, Ike. Other men have been in love before—or thought they was—and it ain't given 'em a conniption fit."

"I got it harder than most men," Ike was able to articulate. "Why, Sally, I love you so hard that it makes me ache!"

The red-haired school-mistress looked at him for a silent moment. Her eyes were pretty hard at first; but finally a softer light came into them and a faint little blush colored her face.

"Well, Ike! is that all you've got to say?" she asked.

"Why—why, Sally! I got lots to say, only it's plugged up and I can't seem to get it out," stammered Ike. "I got five hundred head o' steers, and I've proven on a quarter-section of as nice land as there is in this State and there's a good open range right beside it yet"

"I never did think I'd marry a bunch o' steers," murmured Sally.

"Why—why, Sally, punchin' cattle is about all I know how to do well," declared Bashful Ike. "But you say the word and I'll try any business you like better."

"I wouldn't want you to change your business,