h, do
they?" said Saylo, and added: "I reckon we-all wouldn't be so
over-flowin' with grief ef they'd take all th' loco thar is in th' State
o' Texas."

Just then the Welsh servant blew loud and long on a great tin horn, and
they all went in to supper. Saylo and John had picketed their ponies,
Saylo intending to ride in to Amarilla that night, and John having in
view a visit to the camp of cow-boys four or five miles away. Martha had
tethered Texas near the other ponies, because he was "such a sociable
little beast."

It was nearing sundown when supper was over. One-eyed Saylo vaulted into
his saddle after elaborate good-bys and went off toward Amarilla in a
wild canter, and John prepared to start off on his saddle mission to the
cow-boys. His pony and Texas stood with heads hanging dejectedly down,
close together, as far away from the house as their long lariats would
let them go, when John, carrying on his arm a new saddle that he wanted
to try, went toward them. As he walked away from the house he called
cheerily: "Come, Mattie,--want to go along?"

"Oh, no; I'll stay here with Scylla to-night," she answered.

"Why can't she go too?--it's too nice an evening to stay at home. I'll
ride as slow as you like, and it isn't far."

Both girls were delighted at this.

"Isn't he good to poor little me!" Scylla exclaimed to Martha as John
fixed her on Texas's back.

Martha ran around, brought Dan, and in a very few moments they were
riding leisurely toward the setting sun.

* * * * *

The evening was perfect. As the great, clean-cut disk of the sun dropped
slowly below the far-off edge of the prairie, the breeze that had been
busy all day rustling the prairie-grass died away, and the silence was
so complete that they all stopped involuntarily "to listen to it." They
had ridden until they were three or four miles from the ranch, when
they paused again, this time to hear the crooning of far-away cow-boys.
They were between two great herds of cattle. One, on the left, was half
a mile away; and the moon, which now shed a great white light over the
prairie showed it only as a black mass. Those cattle had been "bedded"
for the night--that is, two cow-boys had ridden around and around them
driving them closer together so that they would be easy to watch, and
much less likely to be restless. The other herd was a little nearer, and
the cow-boys were bedding it as the trio from the ranch approac