ole basket. You
all know who saved 'em. Not namin' any names, the same person, by jest
bein' herself, and kind to everybody, put me wise to the fact that money
and clothes ain't all that goes to make a man. And, at the same time,
speakin' kind of orthodoxical, money and clothes has a whole lot to do
with makin' a man. I just got hep to that idea recent.

"Speakin' of clothes leads me to remark that I got a new outfit up at
the bunk-house. It's a automobilein' outfit. Billy says it's the correc'
thing. He helped me pick it out. Which leads Billy into this here thing,
too. He said to break the news gentle, and not scare anybody to death
and not get 'em to thinkin' that somebody was hurt or anything like
that, so I'm breakin' it to you easy. Me and Billy is goin' away. We're
goin' in the Guzzuh--'God save the mush,' as the pote says. We are the
Overland Red Towerist and Observation Company, Unlimited. We are goin'

"'Round the world and back again;
Heel and toe in sun and rain'--

as another pote says. Only we ride. I ain't got nothin' to say about
gettin' married, or happy days, or any of that ordinary kind of stuff. I
want to drink the health of my friends. I got so many and such good ones
that I dassent to incriminate any particular one; so I say, lookin' at
your faces like roses and lilies and--and faces, I say,--

"'Here's to California, the darling of the West,
A blessin' on those livin' here--
And God help all the rest.'"

Overland sat down amid applause. He located his tobacco and papers,
rolled a cigarette with one hand, and gazed across the hills. Glancing
up, he saw Louise looking at him. He smiled. "I was settin' on a crazy
bronc' holdin' his head up so he couldn't go to buckin'--outside a
little old adobe down in Yuma, Arizona, then. Did you ever drift away
like that, just from some little old trick to make you dream?"

At a nod from Aunt Eleanor they all rose.

Louise stepped from her end of the table to where Overland stood gazing
out across the hills. She touched him lightly on the arm. He turned and
looked at her unseeingly. His eyes were filled with the dreams of his
youth, dreams that had not come true ... and yet.... He gazed down into
her face. His expression changed. His eyes grew misty with happiness. He
realized how many friends he had and how loyal and excellent they were.
And of all that he had gained his greatest treasure was his love for
Louise--for Louise Lacharme, the little