get round right soon."

"There's this much certain, Dick, whether the bone is injured or not,
my life has been saved through your efforts; for I know enough about
gun-shot wounds to understand that I couldn't have pulled through
without something more than we were able to get here."

"Yet you would have prevented me from leaving if I had told you what
was in my mind."

"I should for a fact; because if one of us two must go under, it would
be best for mother an' Margie that I was that one."

"Why, daddy! you have no right to talk like that!"

"It's true, Dick. I've been a sort of ne'er-do-well, otherwise I
wouldn't have been called Roving Dick, while you are really the head
of the house."

"I won't listen to such talk, daddy; for it sounds as if you were out of
your head again, as when we were alone that night. You'll perk up after
we're at Antelope Spring, an' show the people there what you can do."

"I shall be obliged to work very hard in order to make a good showing
by the side of you."

Dick hurried away, for it pained him to hear his father talk in such
fashion; yet at the same time he hoped most fervently that there would
be no more roaming in search of a place where the least possible
amount of labor was necessary, and it really seemed as if "Roving
Dick" had made up his mind to lead a different life.

There was little opportunity for the boy to remain idle.

The supplies he had brought from Mr. Mansfield's shop would not
suffice to provide the family with food many days unless it was
re-enforced by fresh meat; and as soon as Dick had seen to it that the
horses and the broncho were safe, he made preparations for a
hunting-trip.

When breakfast had been eaten, and how delicious was the taste of
bacon and flour-bread to this little party, which had been deprived of
such food so long, he started off, returning at night-fall with a
small deer and half a dozen rabbits.

The greater portion of the venison he cut up ready for smoking; and
when his mother asked why he was planning so much labor for himself,
he replied cheerily,--

"We're likely to lay here ten days at the very least, for the horses
won't be in condition to travel in much less time; and now is my
chance to put in a stock of provisions for the winter. It never'll do
to spend all my wages for food; because you and Margie are to be
fitted out in proper shape, and now I haven't even the rifle to sell,
for that belongs to the prospectors."