of Patsy's grub, too; I
don't believe they had time to cook much breakfast. And it wouldn't be
a bad idea to haze our own stuff clear off the range. I'm afraid Dunk's
sheep are going to fare kinda slim, if we go on letting our cattle eat
all the good grass!" Pink did not often indulge in such lengthy sarcasm,
especially toward his beloved Weary; but his exasperation toward Weary's
mild tactics had been growing apace.

Weary's reply, I fear, will have to be omitted. It was terribly
unrefined.

"I want you boys to spread out, around the whole bunch," was his first
printable utterance, "and haze these sheep just as far south as they
can get without taking to the river. Don't get all het up chasing 'em
yourself--make the men (Weary did not call them men; he called them
something very naughty) that's paid for it do the driving."

"And, if they don't go," drawled the smooth voice of the Native Son,
"what shall we do, amigo? Slap them on the wrist?"

Weary twisted in the saddle and sent him a baleful glance, which was not
at all like Weary the sunny-hearted.

"If you can't figure that out for yourself," he snapped, "you had better
go back and wipe the dishes for Patsy; and, when that's done, you can
pull the weeds out of his radishes. Maybe he'll give you a nickel to buy
candy with, if you do it good." Before he faced to the front again his
harsh glance swept the faces of his companions.

They were grinning, every man of them, and he knew why. To see him lose
his temper was something of an event with the Happy Family, who used
sometimes to fix the date of an incident by saying, "It was right after
that time Weary got mad, a year ago last fall," or something of the
sort. He grinned himself, shamefacedly, and told them that they were
a bunch of no-account cusses, anyway, and he'd just about as soon herd
sheep himself as to have to run with such an outfit; which swept his
anger from him and left him his usual self, with but the addition of a
purpose from which nothing could stay him. He was going to settle the
sheep question, and he was going to settle it that day.

Only one injunction did he lay upon the Happy Family. "You fellows don't
want to get excited and go to shooting," he warned, while they were
still out of hearing of the herders. "We don't want Dunk to get anything
like that on us; savvy?"

They "savvied," and they told him so, each after his own individual
manner.

"I guess we ought to be able to put the r