him, they also respected him. No one thought of attempting to bribe or
scare him, and political "pull" had no value in his eyes.

Jennie, meanwhile, had acquired almost mythic fame as a marvellously
beautiful and haughty "queen." Calvin was singularly close-mouthed about
her, but one or two of the cowboys who had chanced to meet her with the
agent spread the most appreciative reports of her beauty and of the
garments she wore. She was said to be a singer of opera tunes, and that
she played the piano "to beat the Jews." One fellow who had business
with the agent reported having met her at the door. "By mighty! she's
purty enough to eat," he said to his chum. "Her cheeks are as pink as
peaches, and her eyes are jest the brown I like. She's a 'glad rag,' all
right."

"Made good use o' your time, didn't ye?" remarked his friend.

"You bet your life! I weren't lettin' nothin' git by me endurin' that
minute or two."

"I bet you dursn't go there again."

"I take ye--I'll go to-morrow."

"Without any business, this time? No excuse but jest to see her? You
'ain't got the nerve."

"You'll see. I'm the boy. There ain't no 'rag' gay enough to scare me."

It became a common joke for some lank, brown chap to say carelessly, as
he rose from supper, "Well, I guess I'll throw a saddle onto my
bald-faced sorrel and ride over and see the agent's sister." In reality,
not one of them ever dared to even knock at the door, and when they came
to the yards with a consignment of cattle they were as self-conscious as
school-boys in a parlor and uneasy as wolves in a trap, till they were
once more riding down the trail; then they "broke loose," whooping
shrilly and racing like mad, in order to show that they had never been
afraid. Calvin continued to call, and his defence of the agent had led
to several sharp altercations with his father.

The red people expanded and took on cheer under the coming of the
summer, like some larger form of insect life. They were profoundly glad
of the warmth. The old men, climbing to some rounded hill-top at dawn,
sat reverently to smoke and offer incense to the Great Spirit, which the
sun was, and the little children, seeing the sages thus in deep
meditation, passed quietly by with a touch of awe.

As the soft winds began to blow, the dingy huts were deserted for the
sweeter and wholesomer life of the tepee, which is always ventilated,
and which has also a thousand memories of battle and the chase
associ