_ is not well, _si_?" he suggested, suavely.

"Yes, I am well, too," retorted the boy, who felt wretched, with a
curious oppression on his chest.

"Imagine, Senor Leslie, what it must be to kill, to slaughter such a
monster!"

"Ah! a monster, indeed! But I shall kill just such another, you'll see.
What's the use of a ranch on the Rockies and not go bear hunting? They
can't keep me done up in cotton wool just because I used to cough a
little."

"Certainly not, senor."

"Oh! shut up with your everlasting 'certainly nots!' You're as tiresome
as an old woman. I wish you'd stayed in San Diego, where you belong."

Mateo was amazed. He was really devoted to Leslie and they had rarely
disagreed. He scarcely knew the lad in such a mood as this and realized
that something must be done to give a pleasanter turn to things. A bear
hunt? Was that what the young senor had set his heart upon and been
denied? An inspiration came to him.

"_Caramba!_ Behold! I have a fine thought, me. Will it please _el senor_
to listen?"

"Of course. That's what I said to do--to talk."

Then Mateo did talk. For five, ten minutes, with many a gesture and
mixture of Spanish and English, till his listener's face grew radiant
and he sprang from his chair with a hip, hip, hurra! All his crossness
was over and he now allowed Manuel to settle him for the night with a
good nature not to be exceeded by anybody.

The morning found all the young folks happier than they had been on the
night before; and, nobody was late for breakfast. It had been explained
to them that each one should attend the grooming of his or her own
horse. There would be men to wait upon them, of course, and for the
girls but little labor. Yet Mr. Ford believed that they would all be
benefited in health by this pleasant task and that the intimacy which
should exist between horse and rider would be thus furthered.

Breakfast was scarcely over when Captain Lem appeared on the porch. He
looked older than usual and uncommonly pale under his weather toughened
skin, and he had put on his "specs," which he disliked. However, his
manner was as gay as ever and he began:

"You cert'nly are the laziest set o' youngsters I've met sence I was
knee-high to a hop-toad. Reckon if anybody'd give me a horse when I was
your ages I'd ha' beat the sun a-risin' to see if 't had lived over
night. The boys is waiting in the stables, and gettin' pretty cross.
Some on 'em sort-of-kind-of feel 's if they