The Princeton union., 1901-08-22
CHAPTER XVII.

NOT LIKE OTHER WOMEN EITHERv'
I~ HE scene changes once more to
i Nevada-to the ranchhouse
|s1SSsSSI where Lisle passed the years
e4GsSe1 of her youth. Gathered upon
the veranda near where the low win
dows of the library opened from it
were Lisle and her mother, Thomas O..
Thomas of Kansas City and his daugh-
ter and, sitting upon the balustrade,
with his long legs dangling over it..
Craig Thompson.
A year had passed since that same
party, with the exception of Mrs. Bar
rington, was assembled there-a year
that had meant much to Lisle and in
fact to them all. Craig was just the
same old Craig, not whit altered ex-
cept by the disappearance of the beard,
which he had not again permitted to
grow, and the fact that he wore his
hair shorter than formerly. In other
respects he was the same. He had re-
sumed his western manner and habits
with his western dress, and, if the
truth be told, Lisle liked him better So.
There was something incongruous and
unfamiliar about him while he was in
the east, and. after the trip abroad,
during which he accompanied Lisle
and her mother, they all elected to re-
turn to Nevada, at least for the sum-
mer, and Erna and her father were in
vited to join the party.
Regarding the reunion of mother and
daughter at that time one year ago,
when, with Craig, Lisle had left the
presence Of her lawyer to call upon her
mother, very little need be said To
look upon them now, side by side, one
seemed to be the counterpart of the
other, with the difference wrought by
years alone, for, although Lisle had re-
sembled her father, she certainly was
'the image Of her mother"
The two ranches were combined into
one, and both were under the manage
ment Of Craig Thompson, who had
lived the free western life so long that
he preferred it to any other and who
also clung to his western name with
the same tenacity with which he ad-
hered to habits which had become Sec
ond nature to him.
''Tell you what, Lisle," he said when
the conversation Jagged somewhat,
'people who live in the great cities Of
the east don't know what life is. You
can't live to please yourself in such a
place, no matter how hard you try, and
out here you can't help it. The only
times in my life when feel independ-
ent Of all creation are when l have got
my legs a-straddle of a good horse,
with a coiled RATA on the pommel Of
my saddle, a pair of forty-fours in my
belt, cool breeze from the peaks of
the Sierras filling my lungs and my
eyes roaming over a bunch of cattle
that stretches away just as far as can
see. That's the life for me, and Pm
going to live it to the end of my days.
You and your mother can go polk :ng
round the world seeing things all you
want to, but I'll stay here and see that
the bank accounts don't dwindle and
keep my account with the Lord straight,
too, for don't believe could do it in
the east" liz
"You ought to marry, Mr.. Thomp-
SOL, Sdlu Erna- Ou wouldn't be so
lonely when Lisle and her mother are
away"
swell, I don't know about that. May
be you're right, and maybe you're
wrong. / can't tell, though, what l
would do if you were little older or
were little younger. Perhaps in that
case I'd ask you to marry me.''
ut might be that the difference in
our ages would not be Objectionable to
me-" said Erna mischievously. "You
might ask me anyhow. 1t is the only
way to find out.
mo, it isn't. There is another"
"What is it?"
"Never to ask at all. You see, Erna,