ad to be hunted. He
persisted in riding in moccasins and said that his insteps "ached him"
so that he could not keep up.

Reasoning that every occupation has drawbacks of some kind, Wallie bore
these small annoyances with patience, though there were times when he
confessed that The Happy Family of The Colonial were not altogether so
charming and amiable as he had thought.

He never would have suspected, for instance, that J. Harry Stott, who in
his own environment was a person of some little consequence, in another
could appear a complete and unmitigated ass. Or that Mrs. Budlong had
such a wolfish appetite, or that ten cents looked larger to Mr. Appel
than a dollar did to Pink, or that Old Penrose was vain as a peacock
about his looks. Still, Wallie consoled himself, everyone had his
idiosyncrasies, and if they had not had these they might have had worse
ones.

To-day there was the usual commotion over getting off, and then when
Wallie was ready to boost Aunt Lizzie on her horse she was nowhere to be
found. She was not in her tent, nor had she fallen over the embankment,
and the fact that she set great store by her afternoon rides deepened
the mystery.

Old Mr. Penrose, who had unslung his field-glasses, declared he saw
something that might be the top of Aunt Lizzie's head moving above a
small "draw" over on Canby's lease. Mr. Penrose, who had sought ranch
life chiefly because he said he was sick of cities and mobs of people,
when not riding now spent most of his time with his high-power glasses
watching the road in the hope of seeing someone passing and he had come
to be as excited when he saw a load of hay as if he had discovered a
planet.

He passed the glasses to Wallie, who adjusted them and immediately
nodded:

"That's somebody in the draw; it must be Aunt Lizzie."

There was no doubt about it when she came out and started walking slowly
along the top, searching, as she went, for moss-agates. Wallie gave a
sharp exclamation, for, in the moment that they watched her, a small
herd of the Texas cattle came around a hill and also saw her. They
stopped short, and looked at the strange figure. Then, like a band of
curious antelope, they edged a little closer. It might be that they
would not attack her, but, if they did, it was certain they would gore
her to death unless someone was there to prevent it.

Leading his own horse and dragging Aunt Lizzie's stubborn white pony
behind him, Wallie threw down the wir