as his full name. "Life
is livable, after all, as long as a fellow has got you and can ride.
You good-for-nothing old ten-dollar hoss! I--wonder would it be wicked
to sing? What do you think, Blue? You'd sing, I know, at the top of
your voice, if you could. Say, Blue! Don't you wish, you were a
donkey, so you could stick out your neck and go _Yee-ee_-haw!
_Yee-ee_--haw? Try it once. I believe you could. It's that or a run,
one or the other. You'll bust, if you don't do something. I know you!"

At last on the high level, seeing Blue could not bray his joy to the
world, Billy Louise let him go. She needed some outlet, herself, after
those horrible, dull weeks weighted with tragedy. She had been raised
on horseback, almost; and for two terrible months she had not been in
the saddle. And there is nothing like the air of the Idaho hills to
stir one's blood and send it singing.

Through the sagebrush and rocks, weaving in and out, slacking speed a
little while he went down into deep gullies, thundering up the other
side, and racing away over the level again, went Blue. And with him,
laughing, tingling with new life, growing pinker-cheeked every minute,
went Billy Louise. Her mother's death did not oppress her then. She
thought of her as she raced, but she thought of her with a little,
tender smile. Her mother was resting peacefully, and there was no more
pain or worry for the little, pale, frail woman who had lived her life
and gone her way.

"Dear old mommie!" said Billy Louise under her breath. "Your kid is
almost as happy as you are, right now. Don't be shocked, there's a
dear, or think I'm going to break my neck. Blue and I have just simply
got to work off steam. You, Blue!" She leaned another inch forward.

Blue threw up his head, lifted his heels, and ran like a scared
jackrabbit over the uneven ground. They were not keeping to the trail
at all; trails were too tame for them in that mood. They ran along the
rim-rock at the last, where Billy Louise could glance down, now and
then, at the river sliding like a bright-blue ribbon with icy edges
through the gray, snow-spotted hills.

"Hold on, Blue!" Billy Louise pulled up on the reins. "Quit it, you
old devil! A mile ought to be enough for once, I should think.
There's cattle down there in that bottom, sure as you live. And we, my
dear sir, are going down there and take a look at them." She managed
to pull Blue down to stiff-legged jumps a