should ask
some of the boys who have tried it."

"But I--I assure you, Mr. Acton, I had no thought of ridicule--far from
it. Oh, very far from it."

Kitty was obliged to turn away. She arrived at the corral in time to
meet Patches, who was returning.

"You ought to be ashamed," she scolded. But in spite of herself her eyes
were laughing.

"Yes, ma'am," said Patches meekly, hat in hand.

"How could you do such a thing?" she demanded.

"How could I help doing it?"

"How could you help it?"

"Yes. You saw how he looked at me. Really, Miss Reid, I couldn't bear to
disappoint him so cruelly. Honestly, now, wasn't I exactly what he
expected me to be? I think you should compliment me. Didn't I do it very
well?"

"But, he'll think you're nothing but a cowboy," she protested.

"Fine!" retorted Patches, quickly. "I thank you, Miss Reid; that is
really the most satisfactory compliment I have ever received."

"You're mocking me now," said Kitty, puzzled by his manner.

"Indeed, I am not. I am very serious," he returned. "But here he comes
again. With your gracious permission, I'll make my exit. Please don't
explain to the professor. It would humiliate me, and think how it would
shock and disappoint him!"

Lifting his saddle from the ground and starting toward the shed, he said
in a louder tone, "Sure, I won't ferget, Miss Kitty; an' you kin tell
your paw that there baldfaced steer o' his'n, what give us the slip last
rodeo time, is over in our big pasture. I sure seen him thar to-day."

During the days immediately following that first meeting, Kitty passed
many hours with Professor Parkhill. Phil and his cowboys were busy
preparing for the spring rodeo. Mrs. Baldwin was wholly occupied with
ministering to the animal comforts of her earthly household. And the
Dean, always courteous and kind to his guest, managed, nevertheless, to
think of some pressing business that demanded his immediate and personal
attention whenever the visitor sought to engage him in conversation. The
professor, quite naturally holding the cattleman to be but a rude,
illiterate and wholly materialistic creature, but little superior in
intellectual and spiritual powers to his own beasts, sought merely to
investigate the Dean's mental works, with as little regard for the
Dean's feelings as a biologist would show toward a hug. The Dean
confided to Phil and Patches, one day when he had escaped to the
blacksmith shop where the men were shoeing the