t be some traveler from Swallowtown coming to catch the local
train which stopped at the station an hour later. He shaded his eyes
with his right hand and after a careful search did discover a cart with
two persons in it approaching slowly over the waving expanse of the
flower-bedecked prairie. Tom muttered something to himself and traipsed
through the station house, being joined as usual by his dog, who had
been sleeping outside in the sun. Then he walked a little way along the
tracks and finally turned back to his dwelling, the trampled-down
flowers and grass before the entrance being the only signs that the foot
of man ever disturbed its solitary peace. The dog now seemed suddenly to
become aware of the rapidly approaching cart and barked in that
direction. Tom sent him into the house and shut the door behind him,
whereupon the dog grew frantic. The cart approached almost noiselessly
over the flowery carpet, but soon the creaking and squeaking of the
leather harness and the snorting of the horses became clearly audible.

"Halloo, Tom!" called out one of the men.

"Halloo, Winston!" was the answer; "where are you off to?"

"Going over to Pendleton."

"You're early; the express hasn't passed yet," answered Tom.

Winston jumped down from the cart, swung a sack over his shoulder, and
stepped toward the shanty.

"Who's that with you?" asked Tom, pointing with his thumb over his right
shoulder.

"Nelly's brother-in-law, Bill Parker," said the other shortly.

Nelly's brother-in-law was in the act of turning the cart round to drive
back to Swallowtown when Tom, making a megaphone of his hands, shouted
across: "Won't the gentleman do me the honor of having a drink on me?"

"All right," rang out the answer, and Nelly's brother-in-law drove the
horses to the rear of the station.

"Yes, the ring's gone," said Tom. "Bob Cratchit's horses walked off with
it yesterday. You can hunt for it out there somewhere if you want to."

Bill jumped down and fastened the horses with a rope which he tied to
Tom's old tree-stump.

"Come on, fellows!" said Tom, going toward the house. Scarcely had he
opened the door when his dog rushed madly past him out into the open,
barking with all his might at something about a hundred yards behind the
station.

"I guess he's found a gopher," said Tom, and then the three entered the
hut, and Tom, taking a half-empty whisky bottle out of a cupboard,
poured some into a cup without a handle, a sh