Platte River, but
you escaped my memory. It must have gotten into my mind, somehow, that
you had married and gone back to chopping cotton. Still driving for
Uncle Jess Ellison, I reckon?"

"Yes, still clerking for the same drover," admitted Straw, glancing at
the wounded limb. "What's this I hear about you laying off, and trying
to eat some poor nester out of house and home? You must be
getting doty."

"Enjoy yourself, Nat. The laugh's on me. I'm getting discouraged that
I'll ever have common horse sense. Isn't it a shame to be a fool all
your life!"

Straw glanced from the bunk to Dell. "I was just telling the boy, as we
rode up the creek, that you needed a whole heap of fixing in your upper
loft. The poor boy tried his best to defend you, but it was easy to see
that he hadn't known you long."

"And of course you strung him for all he could carry," said Forrest.
"Here, Dell. You were in such a hurry to get away that I overlooked
warning you against these trail varmints. Right now, I can see old Nat
leading you in under a wet blanket, and your colors dragging. Don't
believe a word he told you, and don't even give him a pleasant look
while he stays here."

The discouraged boy brightened, and Joel and Dell were excused, to water
and picket the horses. "You ought to be ashamed of yourself," resumed
Forrest, "brow-beating that boy. Considering my hard luck, I've fallen
into angels' hands. These boys are darling fellows. Now before you
leave, square yourself with that youngest one."

"A little jollying while he's young won't hurt him," replied Straw.
"It's not a bad idea to learn early to believe nothing that you hear and
only half of what you see. If you had been taken snipe hunting oftener
when you were young, it wouldn't hurt you any now. There are just about
so many knocks coming to each of us, and we've got to take them along
with the croup, chicken-pox, measles, and mumps."

During the absence of the boys, Forrest informed Straw of the sad
condition which confronted the lads, when accident and necessity threw
him into their hands. He also repeated Priest's opinion of the valuable
range, unoccupied above on the Beaver, and urged his assistance in
securing some cattle with which to stock and claim it for the boys.

"There's plenty of flotsam on the trail," said he, "strays and
sore-footed cattle, to occupy this valley and give these boys a start in
life. I never even got thanked for a stray, and I've turned hun