we. It was long past midnight when he yielded to
the intense drowsiness that overcame him. When he awoke at dawn they
were still dancing.

Winter passed. Spring came with roundups too numerous for Pan to keep
track of. And a swift happy summer sped by.

That fall a third uncle settled in the valley. He was an older brother
of Pan's father, whom they called Old Uncle Ike. He was a queer old
bachelor, lived alone, and did not invite friendliness. Pan was told
to stay away from him. Old Uncle Ike was crabby and hard; when a boy,
his heart had been broken by an unfaithful sweetheart; he had shot her
lover and run away to war. After serving through the Civil War he
fought Indians, and had lived an otherwise wild life.

But Pan was only the keener to see and know Old Uncle Ike. He went
boldly to make his acquaintance. He found a sad-faced, gray old man,
sitting alone.

Pan said bravely: "Uncle, I'm Pan Smith, your brother Bill's boy, an'
I've come to see you because I'm sure I'll like you."

He did not find the old man unfriendly. Pan was welcome, and soon they
became fast friends. Every Saturday Pan rode over to Uncle Ike's
place, stealing some of the time he was supposed to be spending with
Lucy. The little girl pouted and cried and railed at Pan for such base
desertion, but he only laughed at her. Any time he wanted he could
have Lucy. She grew sweeter and more lovable as she grew older, facts
Pan took to his heart, but he chose the old man's stories of war and
Indians in preference to Lucy's society.

Months passed, and Pan grew tall and supple, with promise of developing
the true horseman's build. Then the spring when he was twelve years
old arrived and his father consented to let him ride for wages at the
roundup.

He joined a big outfit. There were over fifty cowboys, two bed wagons,
two chuck wagons, and strings of horses too numerous to count. A new
horse to ride twice a day! This work was as near paradise as Pan felt
he had ever been. But for one circumstance, it would have been
absolutely perfect, and that was that he had no boots. A fast-riding
cowboy without boots!

In the heat of action, amid the whirling loop of bawling calves and
cows, when the dry dust rose to stop up Pan's nostrils and cake on his
hot sweaty face, when the ropes were whistling, the cowboys yelling,
the brand iron sizzling, all he felt was the wild delight of it, the
thrill of the risk, the excitement, the cons