I'm bully. You wait an'
see me eat dinner."

But Lin had hot water and cold water and salt, and was an hour upon his
knees bathing the hot feet. And then Billy could not eat dinner!

There was a doctor in Golden; but in spite of his light prescription
and most reasonable observations, Mr. McLean passed a foolish night of
vigil, while Billy slept, quite well at first, and, as the hours passed,
better and better. In the morning he was entirely brisk, though stiff.

"I couldn't work quick to-day," he said. "But I guess one day won't lose
me my trade."

"How d' yu' mean?" asked Lin.

"Why, I've got regulars, you know. Sidney Ellis an' Pete Goode has
theirs, an' we don't cut each other. I've got Mr. Daniels an' Mr. Fisher
an' lots, an' if you lived in Denver I'd shine your boots every day for
nothing. I wished you lived in Denver."

"Shine my boots? Yu'll never! And yu' don't black Daniels or Fisher, or
any of the outfit."

"Why, I'm doing first-rate," said Billy, surprised at the swearing into
which Mr. McLean now burst. "An' I ain't big enough to get to make money
at any other job."

"I want to see that engine-man," muttered Lin. "I don't like your
smokin' friend."

"Pete Goode? Why, he's awful smart. Don't you think he's smart?"

"Smart's nothin'," observed Mr. McLean.

"Pete has learned me and Sidney a lot," pursued Billy, engagingly.

"I'll bet he has!" growled the cow-puncher; and again Billy was taken
aback at his language.

It was not so simple, this case. To the perturbed mind of Mr. McLean it
grew less simple during that day at Golden, while Billy recovered, and
talked, and ate his innocent meals. The cow-puncher was far too wise to
think for a single moment of restoring the runaway to his debauched
and shiftless parents. Possessed of some imagination, he went through
a scene in which he appeared at the Lusk threshold with Billy and
forgiveness, and intruded upon a conjugal assault and battery. "Shucks!"
said he. "The kid would be off again inside a week. And I don't want him
there, anyway."

Denver, upon the following day, saw the little bootblack again at his
corner, with his trade not lost; but near him stood a tall, singular
man, with hazel eyes and a sulky expression. And citizens during that
week noticed, as a new sight in the streets, the tall man and the little
boy walking together. Sometimes they would be in shops. The boy seemed
as happy as possible, talking constantly, while the man se