. "No man
knows nothin' about his future. As for the present, you can help with
the cookin'. Flap Jack is due for his bender, week after next, an' if
you can learn the trade by that time you'll come in handy."

'Twas the first time I ever heard of Cast Steel vary his hirin' speech;
so I knew 'at he too had the feller spotted for a stray; but he rolled
up his sleeves an' started to peel spuds for the evenin' slum. He said
that his name was Richard Whittington, an' while he didn't talk overly
extensive about himself, he wasn't nowise offish nor snarly. He did his
work up to the limit too, an' even of Flap Jack didn't complain as much
as he generally did whenever he was furnished with a little extra help.
The peculiar thing was the way 'at Barbie treated him. She came down to
the cook shack soon after he landed, with a lot of Jabez' old clothes
an' a pair of boots, 'cause anything in distress got to her heart by
the shortest cut. She came lopin' along with about fifteen dogs,
whistlin' an' hummin' an' sort o' dancin' up in the air like a young
angel; but the minute she saw him she sobered up, an' after he had
thanked her, which he did in book langwidge, she simply pulled down the
blinds an' locked the door. It was mighty curious an' set us all to
talkin', 'cause she treated us fellers just as friendly as the rest of
the stock; but Dick made a bad impression right at the start, an' we
kept our eyes on him for the first crooked move.

He was a restless feller, was Dick, allus askin' questions about breeds
an' fencin' an' winter feeds an' marketin'. Said he liked to have
somethin' to study about when his hands was workin'. Barbie left one of
her books out in the wagon-shed one day an' Dick found it. He curled
right up on a cushion an' begun to read. That was the very day 'at
Flappy was to start off on his periodical, an' he had made all his
preparations so that everything would be in apple-pie order. When
dinner went by an' no deputy showed up he ground out several canticles
of profanity; but when supper time hove in sight and nairy a report
from the substitute hash-herder, he fairly stood on tiptoe an' screamed
his woes into what they call the wel-kin; an' you can bet that Flappy
made her welk all right.

He had been training for this jag for full three months, an' the thirst
he had built up was somethin' for the whole ranch to be proud of; an'
all the boys was full of sympathy an' interest, an' wanted him to have
every s