ul eyes
told him that a bad night was before them. How bad, perhaps he did not
even dream.

Supper was ready a short time after the arrival of the wagon, and,
laughing and joking, the boys gathered about the spread with a keen zest
for the good things that had been placed before them.

"Do you boys feel like going out on guard to-night?" asked the foreman
while they were eating.

"I do for one," answered Tad.

"And I," chorused the rest of the lads.

"I see your recent wetting has not dampened your spirits any," laughed
Stallings.

"Conditions make a lot of difference in the lives of all of us,"
announced the Professor. "Now, were these boys at home they'd all catch
cold after what they have been through this afternoon. Their clothes, as
it is, will not be dry much before sunrise."

"And perhaps not even then," added the foreman, with an apprehensive
glance at the sky.

"What did you say, Mr. Stallings?"

"I am thinking that it looks like rain."

"What do we do when it rains?" asked Stacy Brown.

"Same as any other time, kid," growled Big-foot Sanders.

"I know; but what do you do?" persisted Chunky.

"Young feller, we usually git wet," snapped Curley Adams, his mouth so
full of potatoes that they could scarcely understand him.

"He means where do we sleep?" spoke up Tad.

"Oh, in the usual place," answered the foreman. "The only difference is
that the bed is not quite so hard as at other times."

"How's that, Mr. Stallings?" inquired Walter.

"Because there's usually a puddle of water under you. I've woke up many
a morning on the plains with only my head out of water. I'd a' been
drowned if I hadn't had the saddle under my head for a pillow. However,
it doesn't matter a great sight. After it has been raining a little
while a fellow can't get any wetter, so what's the odds?"

"That's what I say," added Ned Rector.

Stacy Brown shook his head, disapproval plainly written on his face.

"I don't agree with you. I have never been so wet that I couldn't be
wetter."

"How about when you came out of the river at the end of a cow's tail
this afternoon? Think you could have been any more wet?" jeered Ned.

"Sure thing. I might have drowned; then I'd been wet on the inside as
well as the outside," answered the fat boy, wisely, his reply causing a
ripple of merriment all around the party.

"I guess the gopher scored that time, eh?" grinned Big-foot.

That night Stacy was sent out on the second guard