"You  never  can  tell  about  a  woman's  whims,  Mil-
burn/'  he  said.  "  Dolly  's  set  her  heart  on  holding  onto
that  land,  and  I  reckon  I'm  too  easily  wriggled  about
by  my  women  folks.  I  reckon  we'd  better  call  it  off."

"Oh,  all  right  — all  right!"  said  Milburn,  with  a
start  and  a  sharp  contraction  of  his  brows.  "I'm
that  away  some  myse'f.  My  gals  git  me  into  devilish
scrapes  sometimes,  an'  I'm  always  sayin'  they  got  to
stop  it.  A  man  loses  too  much  by  lettin'  'em  dabble
in  his  business.  But  I  was  jest  goin'  to  say  that  I
mought  raise  my  bid  fifty  cents  on  the  acre  ruther  than
trapse  away  over  to  Springtown  to  see  Buford."

There  was  silence  through  which  several  kinds  of
thoughts  percolated.  The  raise  really  amounted  to  so
much  that  it  materially  increased  Barclay's  growing
conviction  that  the  railroad  was  next  to  a  certainty.
"Huh!"  he  grunted,  his  eyes  ablaze  with  the  amuse
ment  of  a  winner.  "I  wouldn't  listen  to  less  than  a
dollar  more  on  the  acre."  And  as  the  gaze  of  Milburn
went  down  reflectively  the  Colonel  winked  slyly,  even
triumphantly,  at  his  smiling  daughter  and  said :  "  Dol
ly  thinks  it  will  make  good  land  for  a  peach-orchard.
