received no offer which
seemed to promise so well as that of Mr. Pratt, so he waited. At last
he came, a tall, sandy-bearded fellow, who walked beside a four-horse
team drawing two covered wagons tandem. Behind him straggled a bunch of
bony cattle and some horses, herded by a girl and a small boy. The girl
rode a mettlesome little pony, sitting sidewise on a man's saddle.

"Wal--I d'n know," the old man replied in answer to Harold's question.
"I did 'low fer to get some help, but Jinnie she said she'd bring 'em
along fer fifty cents a day, an' she's boss, stranger. If she's sick o'
the job, why, I'll make out with ye. Jinnie, come here."

Jinnie rode up, eyeing the stranger sharply. "What's up, Dad?"

"Here's another young fellow after your job."

"Well, if he'll work cheap he can have it," replied the girl promptly.
"I don't admire to ride in this mud any longer."

Pratt smiled. "I reckon that lets you in, stranger, ef we can come to
terms. We ain't got any money to throw away, but we'll do the best we
kin."

"I'll tell you what you do. You turn that pony and saddle over to me
when we get through, and I'll call it square."

"Well, I reckon you won't," said the girl, throwing back her sunbonnet
as if in challenge. "That's my pony, and nobody gets him without blood,
and don't you forget it, sonny."

She was a large-featured girl, so blonde as to be straw-colored, even to
the lashes of her eyes, but her teeth were very white, and her lips a
vivid pink. She had her father's humorous smile, and though her words
were bluff, her eyes betrayed that she liked Harold at once.

Harold smiled back at her. "Well, I'll take the next best, that roan
there."

The boy burst into wild clamor: "Not by a darn sight, you don't. That's
my horse, an' no sucker like you ain't goin' to ride him, nuther."

"Why don't _you_ ride him?" asked Harold.

The boy looked foolish. "I'm goin' to, some day."

"He can't," said the girl, "and I don't think you can."

Pratt grinned. "Wal, you see how it is, youngster, you an' me has got to
get down to a money basis. Them young uns claim all my stawk."

Harold said: "Pay me what you can," and Pratt replied: "Wal, throw your
duds into that hind wagon. We've got to camp somewhere 'fore them durn
critters eat up all the fences."

As Harold was helping to unhitch the team the girl came around and
studied him with care.

"Say, what's your name?"

"Moses," he instantly replied.

"Moses what?