efore I have quit. I'm goin' to rope the
pinto for Barbie, but I wouldn't do it for you, an' when I get back
I'll call around for what's comin' to me."

"Well, go an' be hanged! You always was the most obstinate,
high-headed, bull-intellected thin-skin 'at ever drew down top wages
for punchin' cows. You're nothin' more than a kid, an' yet you swell
around an' expect a man--"

"Well, I don't expect nothin' from you, ceptin' my wages," sez I.

"You go to Jericho, will you!" snaps Jabez. "You don't need to think
that I'd try to argue any man on earth into workin' for me. I can get
an army o' riders as good or better than you--but the gel likes you,
Happy, an'--"

"An' that's why I 'm goin' after the pinto," sez I, an' I flopped onto
a pony an' sailed out to a little glen in the foothills where I knew I
'd find him, an' as soon as I had towed him back to the corral I put my
saddle on the old beast I had rode there an' set off.

Just as I rode around the edge o' the corral, ol' man Judson stood
there grittin' his teeth. "What are you ridin' that old skin for?" sez
he.

"'Cause it's the only pony I got," sez I.

"You leave it here an' take your pick out o' the five-year-olds," sez
he.

"All I want out o' this ranch is what I have earned," sez I.

"If you don't get something 'at your pride'll earn some day, I'm the
biggest fool this side o' the big ditch. Here's your pay. You've been a
fair hand, but don't forget that I never hire a man twice, an' I've
hired you once already."

"Now look here, Jabez," sez I, "I ain't so old as I'll get if I live as
long as I may, but I'm old enough to know that it's just as easy, to
find a good boss as it is to find a good man. I've done my work without
fussin', an' you've seen me in a pinch or two; an' yet this very
mornin' you intimated than I 'd risk Barbie on a pony she couldn't
ride. The' ain't nothin' I wouldn't do for that child, but you don't
understand her, an' if you go on in your high-handed way with her you
're in for the sorrow o' your life--mark my words."

"Here's your money. You ain't got sense enough to know your place an' I
'm glad to be shut of you." Jabez handed me my pay an' stamped over to
the ranch house, while I kept on down the valley trail.

When I reached the turn I twisted about in my saddle an' looked at the
cluster o' buildings. They looked soft an' gray with old Mount Savage
standin' on guard back of 'em, an' the' was a bigger lump under my
neckti