rocks.
He ate another doughnut, went over and laid himself down on his stomach
the way the boys did, and drank from the little creek. It was just a
chance that he had not come upon water tainted with alkali--but fate is
kind sometimes.

So the Kid, trying very, very hard to act just like his Daddy Chip and
the boys, flopped the blanket vigorously this way and that in an effort
to get it straightened, flopped himself on his knees and folded the
blanket round and round him until he looked like a large, gray cocoon,
and cuddled himself under the ledge with his head on the bag of
doughnuts and his wide eyes fixed upon the first pale stars and his
mind clinging sturdily to his mission and to this first real, man-sized
adventure that had come into his small life.

It was very big and very empty--that canyon. He lifted his yellow head
and looked to see if Silver were there, and was comforted at the sight
of his vague bulk close by, and by the steady KR-UP, KR-UP of bitten
grasses.

"I'm a rell ole cowpuncher, all right," he told himself bravely; but
he had to blink his eyelashes pretty fast when he said it. A "rell ole
cowpuncher" wouldn't cry! He was afraid Doctor Dell would be AWFULLY
s'prised, though...

An unexpected sob broke loose, and another. He wasn't afraid--but...
Silver, cropping steadily at the grass which must be his only supper,
turned and came slowly toward the Kid in his search for sweeter
grass-tufts. The Kid choked off the third sob and sat up ashamed. He
tugged at the bag and made believe to Silver that his sole trouble was
with his pillow.

"By cripes, that damn' jelly glass digs right into my ear," he
complained aloud, to help along the deception. "You go back,
old-timer--I'm all right. I'm a--rell--ole cowpuncher; ain't I,
old-timer? We're makin' a dry-camp, just like--Happy Jack. I'm a
rell--ole--" The Kid went to sleep before he finished saying it. There
is nothing like the open air to make one sleep from dusk till dawn. The
rell ole cowpuncher forgot his little white bed in the corner of the big
bedroom. He forgot that Doctor Dell would be awfully s'prised, and that
Daddy Chip would maybe be cross--Daddy Chip was cross, sometimes. The
rell ole cowpuncher lay with his yellow curls pillowed on the bag of
doughnuts and the gray blanket wrapped tightly around him, and slept
soundly; and his lips were curved in the half smile that came often to
his sleeping place and made him look ever so much like