It makes a person
strong with just the feel of living--the joy of it. Just think,
Winthrop, of being able to eat left-over biscuits and cold bacon and
enjoy it!"
Endicott smiled: "Haven't I improved enough, yet, for 'Win'?--Tex
thinks so."
The girl regarded him critically. "I have a great deal of respect for
Tex's judgment," she smiled.
"Then, dear, I am going to ask you again, the question I have asked you
times out of number: Will you marry me?"
"Don't spoil it all, now, please. I am enjoying it so. Enjoying being
here with just you and the big West. Oh, this is the real West--the
West of which I've dreamed!"
Endicott nodded: "Yes, this is the West. You were right, Alice.
California is no more the West than New York is."
"Don't you love it?" The girl's eyes were shining with enthusiasm.
"Yes. I love it," he answered, and she noticed that his face was very
grave. "There must be something--some slumbering ego in every man that
awakens at the voice of the wild places. Our complex system of
civilization seems to me, as I sit here now, a little thing--a thing,
somehow, remote--unnecessary, and very undesirable."
"Brooklyn seems very far away," murmured the girl.
"And Cincinnati--but not far enough away. We know they are real--that
they actually exist.
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