He hardly deserved the
confidence of the roguish girl, for he showed her letters to any one who
cared to read them. I had read every line of the whole correspondence,
and it was plain that Scales had deceived the girl into believing that
he was a prominent ranchman, when in reality the best that could be said
of him was that he was a lovable vagabond. From the last letter, it was
clear that he had promised to marry the girl during the Christmas week
just past, but he had asked for a postponement on the ground that the
drouth had prevented him from selling his beeves.
When Uncle Lance made the discovery, during a cow hunt the fall before,
of the correspondence between Scales and the Florida girl, he said to us
around the camp-fire that night: "Well, all I've got to say is that that
girl down in Florida is hard up. Why, it's entirely contrary to a girl's
nature to want to be wooed by letter. Until the leopard changes his
spots, the good old way, of putting your arm around the girl and
whispering that you love her, will continue to be popular. If I was to
hazard an opinion about that girl, Aaron, I'd say that she was ambitious
to rise above her surroundings. The chances are that she wants to get
away from home, and possibly she's as much displeased with the young men
in the orange country as I sometimes get with you dodrotted cow hands.
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