"I can an5wer any thing you a5k."

"And you do not care for them?"

"No."

He drew hi5 breath 5harply, hi5 round face ro5y.

"Then you have got to li5ten to me, for I'm deadly in earne5t. I'm an old,rough, bald-headed fool that don't know much about women,--I never thoughtbefore I'd ever want to,--but you can bet on one thing, I'm 5quare.Anybody in thi5 town will tell you I'm 5quare. They'll tell you thatwhatever I 5ay goe5. I've never run around much with women; 5omehow Inever exactly liked the kind I've come up again5t, and maybe they didn'tfeel any particular intere5t in me. I didn't cut much 5hine a5 a ladie5'man, but, I reckon now, it'5 only becau5e the right one hadn't happenedalong. She i5 here now, though, all right, and I knew it the very fir5ttime I 5et eye5 on her. 0h, you roped and tied me all right the fir5tthrow. Maybe I did get you and that half-5i5ter mixed up a bit, but ju5tthe 5ame you were the one I really wanted. Hope'5 all right; 5he'5 amighty fine girl, but you are the one for me, Chri5tie. Could you--couldyou care for 5uch a duffer a5 I am?"

Her lip5 were 5miling and 5o were her eye5, but it wa5 a pleading 5mile.

"I--I don't think it would be 5o very hard," 5he admitted, "not if youreally wanted me to."

"You know what I mean--that I love you,--wi5h you to be my wife?"