yrider! When yo' all git done
kissin' Venus's snow-white hand, come and listen at what's been wrote for
yo' all by Mary V! Whoo-_ee_! Where's the Great Bear at that yo' all was
goin' to lead home, Skyrider?" Then they laughed like two maniacs. Mary V
gritted her teeth at them and wished aloud that she had her shotgun with
her.

A youth, whose sagging chaps pulled in his waistline until he looked
almost as slim as a girl, ceased dragging at the bridle reins of a balky
bronk and glanced across the corral. His three companions were hurrying
that way, lured by a paper which Bud was waving high above his head as he
straddled the top rail of the fence.

"Johnny's a poet, and we didn't know it!" bawled Bud. "Listen here at
what the witless wight's been a-writin'!" Then, seated upon the top rail
and with his hat set far back on his head, Bud Norris began to declaim
inexorably the first two verses, until the indignant author came over and
interfered with voice and a vicious yank at Bud's foot, which brought
that young man down forthwith.

"Aw, le' me alone while I read the rest! Honest, it's swell po'try, and I
want the boys to hear it. Listen--get out, Johnny! '_I'll circle high as
if passing by, then--v-o-l--then vollup, bank, an' land--_' Hold him
off'n me, boys! This is rich stuff I'm readin'! Hey, hold your hand over
his mouth, why don't yuh, Aleck? Yo' all want to wait till I git to
where--"

"I can't," wailed Aleck. "He bit me!"

"Well, take 'im down an' set on him, then. I tell yuh, boys, this is
rich--"

"You give that back here, or I'll murder yuh!" a full-throated young
voice cried hoarsely.

"Here, quit yore kickin'!" Bill admonished.

"Go on, Bud; the boys have got to hear it--it's _rich_!"

"Yeh--shut up, Johnny! Po'try is wrote to be read--go on, Bud. Start
'er over again. I never got to hear half of it on account of Johnny's
cussin'. Go on--I got him chewin' on my hat now. Read 'er from the
start-off."

"The best is yet to come," Bill gloated pantingly, while he held the
author's legs much as he would hold down a yearling. "All set, Bud--let
'er go!"

Whereupon Bud cleared his throat and began again, rolling the words out
sonorously, so that Mary V heard every word distinctly:

"'Before I die, I'll ride the sky;
I'll part the clouds like foam.
I'll brand each star with the Rolling R,
And lead the Great Bear home.'"

"Say, that's _swell_!" a little fellow they called Curley interj