certainly, Mr. Appel, but not nearly so much
as I shall enjoy the relief from listening to the story of the way you
got your start as a 'breaker-boy' in the coal region."

He bowed with the irony of Mephistopheles to Mrs. Budlong:

"Instead of discharging the man with the vacuum cleaner, I shall give
him for his large family the cake and fruit you would have carried away
from the table in your capacious pocket if you had been here."

His eyes swept them all.

He would have given Mr. Budlong his attention, but that person's
vanishing back was all he could see of him, so he turned to the others
and shouted:

"Go! The sooner the better. Get out of my sight--the lot of you! I'M
GOING TO A REST CURE!"

His hand travelled toward the potato he used as a pen-wiper and there
was something so significant in the action when taken in connection with
his menacing expression that, without a word, they obeyed him.

CHAPTER XVII

COUNTING THEIR CHICKENS

The "Happy Family" of The Colonial had decided to make up a congenial
party and spend the remainder of the summer at the Lolabama Ranch in
Wyoming. They were expected on the morrow, everything was in readiness
for their coming, and, after supper, down by the corrals Wallie and
Pinkey sat on their heels estimating their probable profits.

Pinkey's forehead was furrowed like a corrugated roof with the mental
effort as he figured in the dust with a pointed stick while Wallie's
face wore a look of absorption as he watched the progress, although he
was already as familiar with it as with his multiplication tables.

"Ten head of dudes at $100 a month is a $1,000," said Pinkey. "And
twelve months in the year times a $1,000 is $12,000. And, say----"

Wallie interrupted:

"But I've told you a dozen times they all go South in the winter. The
most we can count on is two months now and perhaps more next summer."

Pinkey replied confidently:

"You can't figger out ahead what a dude is goin' to do any more than a
calf or a sheep. If we treat 'em right and they get stuck on the country
they're liable to winter here instead of Floridy. Now, if we could
winter--say--ten head of dudes at $150 a month for seven months, that
would be $10,500. The trip through the Yellowstone Park and Jackson Hole
Country is goin' to be a big item. Ten head of dudes--say--at $5.00 a
day for--say--fifteen days is----"

"But you never deduct expenses, Pinkey. It isn't all profit. There's the
inter