TAKING HER MEDICINE
The perspiration broke out on Bowers's forehead.
" I thought Pd git married, if anybody that looked good to me wcfuld have me."
" You're not happy, Bowers? " she asked gently.
" I ain't sufferin', but I ain't livin' in what you'd call no seventh heaven."
Kate smiled at the grim irony of his tone.
" It's not up to much, this life of ours out here," she agreed in a low voice.
" Nothin' to look forward to — nothin' to look back to," he said bitterly.
" I understand," Kate nodded.
" I never had as much home life as a coyote," he con- tinued with rebellion in his tone. " A coyote does git a den and a family around him every spring." And he added shortly, " I'm lonesome."
They sat in a long silence, Kate with her hands clasped about a knee and looking off at the mountain. She turned to him after a while:
" Do you like me. Bowers? "
" I shore do."
Then she asked with quiet deliberation:
" Well enough to — marry me? "
Bowers looked at her, speechless. He managed finally:
"Are you joshin'?"
" No."
A prairie dog rose up in front of them and chattered. They both stared at him. Bowers reached over and took her gloved fingers between his two palms — in the same fashion a loyal subject might have touched his queen's hand.
"That's a great thing you said to me, Miss Kate.
I never expected any such honor ever to cotcvfc a snr..
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