"

"Oh, let it go at Mose."

"Hain't you got no other name?"

"I did have but the wind blew it away."

"What was it?"

"Moses N. Hardluck."

"You're terrible cute, ain't you?"

"Not so very, or I wouldn't be working for my board."

"You hain't never killed yourself with hard work, by the looks o' them
hands."

"Oh, I've been going to school."

"A'huh! I thought you had. You talk pretty hifalutin' fer a real workin'
man. I tell ye what I think--you're a rich man's son, and you've run
away."

"Come, gal, get that coffee bilin'," called the mother. Mrs. Pratt was a
wizened little woman, so humped by labor and chills and fever that she
seemed deformed. Her querulousness was not so much ill-natured as
plaintive.

"He _says_ his name is Mose Hardluck," Harold heard the girl say, and
that ended all further inquiry. He became simply "Mose" to them.

There was a satisfying charm to the business of camping out which now
came to be the regular order of living to him. By day the cattle, thin
and poor, crawled along patiently, waiting for feeding time to come,
catching at such bunches of dry grass as came within their reach, and at
their heels rode Harold on an old black mare, his clear voice urging the
herd forward. At noon and again at night Pratt halted the wagons beside
the road and while the women got supper or dinner Harold helped Pratt
take care of the stock, which he was obliged to feed. "I started a
little airly," he said at least a score of times in the first week. "But
I wanted to get a good start agin grass come."

Harold was naturally handy at camping, and his ready and skillful hands
became very valuable around the camp fire. He was quick and cheerful,
and apparently tireless, and before the end of the week Jennie said:

"Say, Mose, you can ride my horse if you want to."

"Much obliged, but I guess I'll hang on to the black mare."

At this point Dannie, not to be outdone, chirped shrilly: "You can break
my horse if you want to."

So a few days later Harold, with intent to check the girl in her growing
friendliness, as well as to please himself, replied: "I guess I'll break
Dan's colt."

He began by caressing the horse at every opportunity, leaning against
him, or putting one arm over his back, to let him feel the weight of his
body. At last he leaped softly up and hung partly over his back.
Naturally the colt shied and reared, but Harold dropped off instantly
and renewed his petting and soothi