also served as an office. There was a great, flat desk in one corner,
and lying on it--among some dusty papers, reports and stock books--was a
six-gun, with its belt and holster, a silver watch, a knife, and other
odds and ends. These were the property of poor Buck Milton, waiting till
they were claimed, or would be disposed of.

Whitey looked at them sadly. Near the watch lay a crumpled and soiled
piece of paper, and as Whitey glanced at it his own name caught his eye.
Surprised, he picked the paper up and read it through before he
realized what it was--Bill Jordan's letter to Dan Brayton, of the T Up
and Down, the letter Whitey had delivered. It ran:

Friend Dan--

Whitey Sherwood, the kid what fetches this here letter, is tired uv
school. He had ruther fish. This here letter is sposed to be on
importunt business uv his dads, the owner uv this here ranch. The
business is to make Whitey tireder out uv school than what he was in it.
I started the ball rollin. Kin you keep it goin?

Hopin this will find you the same

Yours truly
Wm Jordan

There were two notations in pencil at the bottom of the letter. One
read:

Walt--Im passin the kid along to you. Get busy.

Dan

And the other, Buck's:

Dont kill this kid but come as near to it as you kin.

Walt

A great light broke in on Whitey. So this was the meaning of it all? the
twenty-five mile walk to Cal Smith's house; the singular conduct of the
men at the T Up and Down; the nester's lending him that jack Felix, that
he knew would run home and leave Whitey alone on the plains; and Walt
Lampson's sending him out on the range, in the face of a storm. And as a
sort of high peak in his mountain range of troubles Whitey remembered
Little Thompson's talk about funerals. Whitey buried his head in his
hands and groaned at the thought. He had dreamed of funerals ever since.
He determined to make a will and put in it that Little Thompson should
not be allowed to come to his (Whitey's) funeral.

They had passed him along from one to another, making a fool of him, and
laughing behind his back all the time. He knew how rough cowmen often
were in their fun, and the only wonder was that they hadn't treated him
worse. He supposed that they would have done so had his father not been
a ranch-owner. So! they probably