was once more his
own master. He had sold his time to Junkins. He would not pilfer the
hours it would take to ride twenty miles and back again, even to see
Billy Louise; which proves that he was no moral weakling, whatever else
he might be.

Then, in April, he left Junkins and drove home a nice little bunch of
ten cows and a two-year-old and two yearlings. One of the cows had a
week-old calf, and there would be more before long. Ward sang the
whole of _Chisholm Trail_ at the top of his voice, as he drifted the
cattle slowly up the long hill to the top of the divide, from where he
could look down over lower hills into his own little creek-bottom.

"With my knees in the saddle and my seat in the sky,
I'll quit punching cows in the sweet by-and-by,"

he finished exuberantly and promised himself that he would ride down to
the Wolverine the very next day "and see how the folks came through the
winter." He wanted to tell William Louisa that he was some cowman
himself, these days. He thought he had made a pretty good showing in
the last twelve months; for when he first met her, at the Cedar Creek
ford, he hadn't owned a hoof except the four which belonged to Rattler,
his horse. He thought that maybe, if the play came right and he didn't
lose his nerve, he might tell William Louisa something else! It seemed
to him that he had earned the right now.

He rode three miles oblivious to his surroundings, while he went
carefully over his acquaintance--no, his friendship--with Billy Louise
and tried to guess what she would say when he told her what he had
wanted to tell her for a year; what he had been hungry to tell her.
Sometimes he smiled a little, and sometimes he looked gloomy. He ended
by hurrying the cattle down the canyon so that he might ride on to the
Wolverine that night. It would be tough on Rattler, but then, what's a
range cayuse made for, anyway? Rattler had had a snap, all winter; he
could stand a hard deal once, for a change. It would do the old skate
good to lift himself over fifty miles once more.

Whether it did Rattler any good or not, it put new heart into Ward to
ride down the bluff and see the wink of the cabin window once more. He
smiled suddenly to himself, threw back his shoulders, and lifted up his
voice in the doggerel that had come to be a sort of bond between the
two.

"I'm on my best horse and a-comin' on the run,
Best blamed cowboy that ever pulled a gun,"

he shouted glee