to be no preacher to live
right. But it don't seem square to let you take us right home with you,
just because you're so darned kind you'd do it and never think a thing
about it. We ain't ungrateful--I know I ain't. But--but--"

"The kid's said it, Bud," Jerry came to the rescue. "We come along
because it was a ticklish trip you had ahead. And I've knowed as good
riders as you are, that could stand a little holding in the saddle when
some freak had tried to shoot 'em out of it. But you're close to home
now and you don't need us no more, and so we ain't going to horn in on
the prodigal calf's milkbucket. Marian, She's likely there--"

"If Sis ain't with your folks we'll hunt her up," Eddie interrupted
eagerly. "Sis is your kind--she--she's good enough for yuh, Bud, and I
hope she--ll--well if she's got any sense she will--well, if it comes to
the narrying point, I--well, darn it, I'd like to see Sis git as good a
man as you are!" Eddie, having bluntered that far, went headlong as if
he were afraid to stop. "Sis is educated, and she's an awful good singer
and a fine girl, only I'm her brother. But I'm going to live honest from
now on, Bud, and I hope you won't hold off on account of me. I
ain't going to have sis feel like crying when she thinks about me!
You--you--said something that hurt like a knife, Bud, when you told me
that, up in Crater. And she wasn't to blame for marryn' Lew--and she
done that outa goodness, the kind you showed to Jerry and me. And we
don't want to go spoilin' everything by letting your folks see what
you're bringin' home with yuh! And it might hurt Sis with your folks, if
they found out that I'm--"

Bud had been standing by his horse, looking from one to the other,
listening, watching their faces, measuring the full depth of their
manhood. "Say! you remind me of a story the folks tell on me," he said,
his eyes shining, while his voice strove to make light of it all. "Once,
when I was a kid in pink-aprons, I got lost from the trail-herd my folks
were bringing up from Texas. It was comin' dark, and they had the whole
outfit out hunting me, and everybody scared to death. When they were all
about crazy, they claim I came walking up to the camp-fire dragging
a dead snake by the tail, and carrying a horn toad in my shirt, and
claiming they were mine because I 'ketched 'em.' I'm not branding that
yarn with any moral--but figure it out for yourself, boys."

The two looked at each other and grinned. "I