ously
through town on his best horse, with a new Navajo saddle-blanket
making a dab of bright color, and a new Stetson hat dimpled
picturesquely as to crown and tilted rakishly over one eye, and with
his silver-mounted spurs catching the light; around him would ride the
Happy Family, also in gala attire and mounted upon the best horses in
their several strings. The horses would not approve of the
street-cars, and would circle and back--and it was quite possible,
even probable, that there would be some pitching and some pretty
riding before the gaping populace which did not often get a chance to
view the real thing. People would stop and gaze while they went
clattering by, and he, Andy Green, would be pointed out by the knowing
ones as a fellow that was going to ride in the contest and that stood
a good chance of winning. For Andy was but human, that he dreamed of
these things; besides, does not the jumping through blazing hoops and
over sagging bunting while one rides, whet insiduously one's appetite
for the plaudits of the crowd?

The reality was different. He was in Great Falls, but he had not
ridden vaingloriously down Central Avenue surrounded by the Happy
Family, and watched by the gaping populace. Instead, he had chosen a
side street and he had ridden alone, and no one had seemed to know or
care who he might be. His horse had not backed, wild-eyed, before an
approaching car, and he had not done any pretty riding. Instead, his
horse had scarce turned an eye toward the jangling bell when he
crossed the track perilously close to the car, and he had gone
"side-wheeling" decorously down the street--and Andy hated a pacing
horse. The Happy Family was in town, but he did not know where. Andy
kicked his horse into a gallop and swore bitterly that he did not
care. He did not suppose that they gave him a thought, other than
those impelled by their jeopardized pockets. And that, he assured
himself pessimistically, is friendship!

He tied the hired horse to the fence and went away to the stables and
fraternized with a hump-backed jockey who knew a few things himself
about riding and was inclined to talk unprofessionally. It was not at
all as Andy had pictured the opening day, but he got through the time
somehow until the crowd gathered and the racing began. Then he showed
himself in the crowd of "peelers" and their friends, as unconcernedly
as he might; and as unobtrusively. The Happy Family, he observed, was
not there, th