she _must_ take him seriously and--anyway, his
train of thought led him to inquire:

"Don't you ever think about getting married, Pink?"

His partner regarded him in astonishment.

"Now wouldn't I look comical tied to one of them quails I see runnin'
around Prouty!"

"But," Wallie persisted, "some nice girl----"

"Aw-w---- I'd ruther have a good saddle-horse. I had a pal that tried it
onct, and when I seen him, I says: 'How is it, Jess?' He says, 'Well,
the first year is the worst, and after that it's worse and worse.' No,
sir! Little Pinkey knows when he's well off."

It was obvious that his partner's mood did not fit in with his own. The
new moon rose and the crickets chirped as the two sat in silence on the
fence and smoked.

"It's a wonderful night!" Wallie said, finally, in a hushed voice.

"It's plumb peaceful," Pinkey agreed. "I feel like I do when I'm gittin'
drunk and I've got to the stage whur my lip gits stiff. I've always
wisht I could die when I was like that."

Wallie suggested curtly:

"Let's go to bed." He had regretted his partner's lack of sentiment more
than once.

"Time to git into the feathers if we make an early start." Pinkey
unhooked his heels. "Might have a little trouble hitchin' up. The two
broncs I aim to put on the wheel has never been drove."

CHAPTER XVIII

THE MILLIONAIRES

Pinkey was not one to keep his left hand from knowing what his right
hand is doing, so the report had been widely circulated that "a bunch of
millionaires" were to be the first guests at the new Lolabama Dude
Ranch. In consequence of which, aside from the fact that the horses ran
across a sidewalk and knocked over a widow's picket-fence, the advent of
Pinkey and Wallie in Prouty caused no little excitement, since it was
deduced that the party would arrive on the afternoon train.

If to look at one millionaire is a pleasure and a privilege for folk who
are kept scratching to make ends meet, the citizens of Prouty might well
be excused for leaving their occupations and turning out _en masse_ to
see a "bunch." The desire to know how a person might look who could
write his check in six or more figures, and get it cashed, explained the
appearance of the male contingent on the station platform waiting for
the train to come in, while the expectation of a view of the latest
styles accounted for their wives.

"Among those present," as the phrase goes, was Mr. Tucker. Although Mr.
Tucker had not bee