I
want you to find fault like the mischief, and--er--knock me into shape,
if it's possible." He was very modest over his ignorance, and his voice
rang true.

Park studied him gravely. "Bud," he said at last, "you'll do. You're
greener right now than a blue-joint meadow in June, but yuh got the
right stuff in yuh, and it's a go with me. You come along with us after
that trail-herd, and you'll get knocked into shape fast enough. Smoke?"

Thurston shook his head. "Not those."

"I dunno I'm afraid yuh can't be the real thing unless yuh fan your
lungs with cigarette smoke regular." The twinkle belied him, though.
"Say, where did you pick them bloomers?"

"They were made in New York." Thurston smiled in sickly fashion. He had
all along been uncomfortably aware of the sharp contrast between his own
modish attire and the somewhat disreputable leathern chaps of his host's
foreman.

"Well," commented Park, "you told me to find fault like the mischief,
and I'm going to call your bluff. This here's Montana, recollect, and I
raise the long howl over them habiliments. The best thing you can do is
pace along to the house and discard before the boys get sight of yuh.
They'd queer yuh with the whole outfit, sure. Uh course," he went on
soothingly when he saw the resentment in Thurston's eyes, "I expect
they're real stylish--back East--but the boys ain't educated to stand
for anything like that; they'd likely tell yuh they set like the hide
on the hind legs of an elephant--which is a fact. I hate to say it, Kid,
but they sure do look like the devil."

"So would you, in New York," Thurston flung back at him.

"Why, sure. But this ain't New York; this here's the Lazy Eight corral,
and I'm doing yuh a favor. You wouldn't like to have the boys shooting
holes through the slack, would yuh? You amble right along and get some
pants on--and when you've wised up some you'll thank me a lot. I'm going
on a little jaunt down the creek, before dinner, and you might go along;
you'll need to get hardened to the saddle anyway, before we start for
Billings, or you'll do most uh riding on the mess-wagon."

Thurston, albeit in resentful mood, went meekly and did as he was
commanded to do; and no man save Park and the cook ever glimpsed those
smart riding clothes of English cut.

"Now yuh look a heap more human," was the way Park signified his
approval of the change. "Here's a little horse that's easy to ride and
dead gentle if yuh don't spur him