refused to digest properly diluted cows' milk.

"Now there ain't no use you carryin' on that way, father," she
tackled him. "The time's past for you to cut and run for a place
like the Klondike, and singing won't buy you nothing."

"Just the same," he answered quietly. "I bet I could go to that
Klondike place and pick up enough gold to buy back the Tarwater
lands."

"Old fool!" Annie contributed.

"You couldn't buy them back for less'n three hundred thousand and
then some," was William's effort at squelching him.

"Then I could pick up three hundred thousand, and then some, if I
was only there," the old man retorted placidly.

"Thank God you can't walk there, or you'd be startin', I know,"
Mary cried. "Ocean travel costs money."

"I used to have money," her father said humbly.

"Well, you ain't got any now--so forget it," William advised.
"Them times is past, like roping bear with Bill Ping. There ain't
no more bear."

"Just the same--"

But Mary cut him off. Seizing the day's paper from the kitchen