gift to Allegheny, and to
tell her in breathless excitement all about that wonderful afternoon.

"He said he'd a mind to lick me, an' I bet he could 'a' done it, too,"
the boy concluded.

"Lick you? Hunh!"

"Oh, he's hard-boiled! That's why I like him. He's been 'round the
world and speaks furrin language like a natif. That suit of clo's was
_made_ for him, an' he's got thirty others, all better 'n this one.
Shoes, too! Made special, in New York. Forty dollars a pair!"

"What's he doin' here if he's so rich?" It was the doubting female of
the species speaking. "Drummers is terrible liars."

Buddy flew to the defense of his hero. "He's doin' this to he'p a
friend. Told me all about it. I'm goin' to have thirty suits--"

"Shoes don't cost forty dollars. _Clo's_ don't cost that much." Allie
regarded her brother keenly, understandingly, then she said, somberly,
"It ain't no use, Buddy."

"What ain't?"

"It ain't no use to wish. Mebbe you can have thirty suits--if the wells
hold out, but they won't look like his. And me, too. We're too big,
Buddy, an' the more money we got, the more clo's we put on, the more
folks is goin' to laugh at us. It shames me to go places with anybody
but you."

"_He_ wouldn't laugh. He's been all over the world," the boy asserted.
Then, after some deliberation, "I bet he's seen bigger people than us."

As a matter of fact, Allegheny's sensitiveness about her size had been
quickly apparent to Gray, and during that day he did his utmost to
overcome it, but with what success he could not know. Buddy was his,
body and soul, that much was certain; he made the conquest doubly
secure by engaging the young Behemoth in a scuffle and playfully
putting him on his back. Defeat, at other hands than Gray's, would have
enraged Ozark to the point of frenzy, it would have been considered by
him an indignity and a disgrace. Now, however, he looked upon it as a
natural and wholly satisfactory demonstration of his idol's supreme
prowess, and he roared with delight at being bested. Gray promptly
taught him the wrestling trick by which he had accomplished the feat,
and flattered the boy immensely by refusing to again try his skill. The
older man, when he really played, could enter into sport with
tremendous zest and he did so now; he taught Buddy trick after trick;
they matched each other in feats of strength and agility. They wound up
finally on opposite sides of the Briskow kitchen table, elbows planted,