of cold meat. I'll be along in a
minute.'

"And off he went to the barn, leavin' me shakin' with his jolt. He was
game all right! He figured me out as the prodigal son, and wa'n't goin'
to knuckle. He intended for me to do all the knee exercise. I drifted
along up the path toward the kitchen.

"Judas! but it did seem nice and familiar. It was all so green and
flowery after camp. There ain't a tree or a patch of green grass left in
Cripple; but there, in our old yard, were lylock-trees, and rose-bushes
climbin' the porch, and pinks and hollyhocks--and beehives, just as they
used to set--and clover. Say, it nearly had me snifflin'. It sure did."

The memory of it rather pinched his voice as he described it, but he
went on.

"Of course I couldn't live down there now--it's too low, after a man has
breathed such air as this."

He looked out at the big clouds soaring round Pike's Peak.

"But the flowers and the grass they did kind o' get me. I edged round on
the front side of the house, and, sure enough, there sat mother, just as
she used to--in the same old chair.

"Cap, I want to tell you, I didn't play no circus tricks on _her_. Her
head had grown white as snow and she looked kind o' sad and feeble. I
began to understand a little of the worry I'd been to her. I said good
evening, and she turned and looked at me. Then she opened her arms and
called out my name."

His voice choked unmistakably this time, and it was a minute or two
before he resumed.

"No jokes, no lies doin' there! I opened right up to her. I told her I'd
done well, but that I didn't want father to know it just yet, and we sit
there holdin' hands when the old man hove round the corner.

"'Stephen,' says mother, kind o' solemn, 'here's our son Edward.'

"Did the old man wilt, or climb the line fence and offer to shake hands?
Nitsky! He just shoved one hip onto the edge of the porch and remarked:

"'Does this dry spell reach as fur as where you've been?'"

He broke into silent laughter again, and I joined him. This was all so
deeply characteristic of the life I had known in my youth that I writhed
with delight. I understood the duel of wits and wills. I could see it
proceed as my companion chuckled.

"Well, sir, we played that game all the evening. I told of all the bad
leases I'd tackled--and how I'd been thrown from a horse and laid up for
six months. I brought out every set-back and bruise I'd ever had--all to
see if the old man would weak