he path to bed, hoping he would awaken in a more cheerful humour--which
he did--because he dreamed that with Helene Spenceley beside him he was
burning up the road in a machine of a splendour "to put Canby's eye
out."

The next morning Pinkey was gone when they gathered at the breakfast
table. Miss Eyester looked downcast because he had failed to tell her of
his intention, while Mrs. Stott declared that it was very inconsiderate
for him to go without mentioning it, since he had promised to match
embroidery cotton for her and she could not go on with her dresser-scarf
until she had some apple-green to put the leaves in with.

The morning passed without incident, except that Mr. Budlong was
astonished when Wallie told him that his new high-power rifle was
scattering bullets among Mr. Canby's herd of cattle more than a mile
distant and that it was great good fortune he had not killed any of
them. Otherwise Wallie was engaged as usual in answering questions and
lengthening and shortening stirrups for ladies the length of whose legs
seemed to change from day to day, making such alterations necessary.

Miss Gaskett "heeled" Wallie with flattering faithfulness and
incidentally imparted the information that a friend from Zanesville,
Ohio, Miss Mercy Lane was to join their party in Prouty when the date
was definitely set for their tour of the Yellowstone.

"She's a dear, sweet girl whom I knew at boarding-school, and," archly,
"you must tell me that you will not fall in love with her."

Wallie, who now thought of even "dear, sweet girls" in terms of dollars
and cents, felt that he could safely promise.

It was a relief when the triangle jangled for dinner, and Wallie looked
forward to the ride afterward, although it had its attendant
irritations--chief of which was the propensity of J. Harry Stott to
gallop ahead and then gallop back to see if the party was coming: rare
sport for Mr. Stott, but less so for the buckskin. As soon as that
sterling young fellow had discovered that he could ride at a gallop
without falling off he lost no opportunity to do so, and his horse was
already showing the result of it.

Boosting Aunt Lizzie Philbrick on and off her horse to enable her to
pick flowers and examine rocks was a part of the routine, as was
recovering Mrs. Budlong's hairpins when her hair came down and she lost
her hat. Mr. Budlong, too, never failed to lag behind and become
separated from the rest of the party, so that he h