derin' about Nancy. 'Is she alive,
I wonder?'

"Do you mean to say you left _her_ without a word of good-by?"

He looked down at his knee and scratched a patch of grease there.
"That's what! I was so blame mad I cut loose of the whole outfit. Once
or twice sis had mentioned Nance in a casual kind of way, but as I
didn't bite--she had quit fishin', and so I was all in the dark about
her. She might 'ave been dead or married or crazy, for all I knew.
However, now that I was on my way back with nineteen thousand dollars in
the bank and a good show for more, I kind o' got to wonderin' what she
was sufferin' at."

"I hope she was married to a banker in town and the owner of an electric
brougham. 'Twould have served you right."

He smiled again and resumed his story. "By the time I reached the old
gate I was dusty as a stage-coach, and this old corduroy suit made me
look as much like a tramp as anybody. As I came onto the old man he was
waterin' a span o' horses at the well. Everything looked about the same,
only a little older--he was pretty gray and some thinner--and I calls
out kind o' meek-like:

"'Can I get a job here, mister?'

"He looked me over a spell, then says, 'No, for I'm purty well supplied
with hands.'

"'What you need is a boss,' I says, grinnin'.

"Then he knew me, but he didn't do no fancy start--he just growled out
kind o' surly:

"'I'm competent to do all the bossin' on this place,' he says.

"'You may think so,' I joshed him, 'but if I couldn't keep a place
lookin' a little slicker 'n this, I'd sell out and give some better man
a chance.'

"Did that faze him? Not on your life. He checked up both horses before
he opened his mouth again.

"'You don't look none too slick yourself. How comes it you're trampin'
this hot weather?'

"I see what he was driving at and so I fed him the dope he wanted.

"'Well, I've had hard luck,' I says. 'I've been sick.'

"'You don't look sick,' he snapped out, quick as a flash. 'You look
tolerable husky. You 'pear like one o' these chaps that eat up all they
earn--eat and drink and gamble,' he went on, pilin' it up. 'I don't pity
tramps a bit; they're all topers.'

"I took it meek as Moses.

"'Well,' I says, 'I'm just out of the hospital, and whilst I may seem
husky, I need a good quiet place and a nice easy job for a while.
Moreover, I'm terrible hungry.'

"'You go 'long up to the house,' he says, 'and tell the girl in the
kitchen to hand you out a plate