get out
of the mountains. The snow comes pretty early up there sometimes.
I think I'll get inside and share the bed with the rancher after
this, and you and Snoozer can curl up in the front end of the
wagon-box. It would be a joke if we got snowed in somewhere, and
had to live in the Rattletrap till spring."

"I wouldn't care if we could keep warm," said Ollie. "I like
living in it better than in any house I ever saw."

"I'm afraid it would get a little monotonous along in March,"
laughed Jack. "Though I think myself it's a pretty good place to
live. Stationary houses begin to seem tame. I hope the trip won't
spoil us all, and make vagabonds of us for the rest of our
lives."

We were reluctant to leave this camp the next morning, but
knew that we must be moving on. It was but a few miles to the
town of Buffalo Gap, and we passed through it before noon.

"There are more varmints," cried Ollie, as we were driving
through the town. They were in a cage in front of a store, and we
stopped to see them.

"What are they?" one of us asked the man who seemed to own
them.

"Bob-cats," he answered, promptly.

"Must be a Buffalo Gap name for wild-cats," said Jack, as we
drove on, "because that's what they are."

Ollie had gone into a store to buy some cans of fruit, and
when he came out he looked much bewildered.

[Illustration: A Lesson in Finance]

"I think," he said, "that that man must be crazy, or
something. There were thirty cents coming to me in change. He
tossed out a quarter and said, 'Two bits,' and then a dime and
said, 'Short bit--thank you,' and closed up the drawer and
started off. I didn't want more than was coming to me, so I
handed out a nickle and said, 'There, that makes it right.' The
man looked at it, laughed, and pushed it back, and said, 'Keep
it, sonny; I haven't got any chickens.' Now, I'd like to know
what it all meant."

We both laughed, and when Jack recovered his composure he
said:

"It means simply that we're getting out into the mining
country, where no coin less than a dime circulates. He didn't
happen to have three dimes, so the best he could do was to give
you either twenty-five or thirty-five cents, and he was letting
you have the benefit of the situation by making it thirty-five. A
bit is twelve and a half cents, and a short bit is ten cents. A
two-bit piece is a quarter."

"Yes; but what about his not keeping chickens?"

"Oh, that was simply his humorous way