a fool of himself."

Suddenly Locals gave a yell of joy and shouted, "My fortune's made! I
can take this thing and have a runaway boy and a lost orphan and a rich
uncle and a villanous cousin, and write the novel of the age about it."

"No, no!" sez Hammy, catchin' the excitement, "tragedy--make it a
tragedy. It is for the stage! Think of them lost without food and the
balloon coming into sight! Think of the scenic effects, the low music
as the orphan kneels in the middle of the stage and prays that the
balloon may bring them food; and then have the villanous cousin in the
balloon--"

Well, they purt' nigh fought about it, and they were still at it when I
left them. The tingle of spring in the air made me wild to get back to
the range again. I thought of little Barbie and what a great girl she
must be by this time. I thought of the big-eyed winter calves huggin'
up to their mothers and wonderin' what it all meant. I thought of old
Mount Savage, and all of a sudden somethin' seemed pullin' at my breast
like a rope, an' I drew down my winter wages, an' set out for the
no'th, eager as a hound pup on his first hunt.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

DRESS REFORM AT THE DIAMOND DOT

I've heard it called Christian fortitude, an' I've heard it called
Injun stoickcism, an' I've heard it called bulldog grit; but it's a
handy thing to have, no matter what it is. I mean the thing that keeps
a feller good company when the' 's a hurtin' in his heart that he never
quite forgets. A little child away from home an' just sick to go back,
a man who has to grit his teeth an'--but no, the first expresses the
feelin' better--a child, homesick, but keepin' a stiff upper lip; and
it don't make much difference what the age, that's a condition 'at
nobody ever outgrows.

Well, all the years I'd been away the' was a little empty sore spot in
my heart that I couldn't quite forget; but I never aired it none, an' I
don't believe I knew myself how big it was, until I left Slocum's Luck
behind me an' headed for the Diamond Dot. Then I spread a grin on my
face that nothin' wouldn't wipe off, an' I stepped so high an' light
that I was like a nervous man goin' barefoot through a thistle patch. I
was headed for home; an' even a mule that gets dressed down regular
with the neck-yoke gives a little simmer of joy when he's headed toward
home, while a dog,--well, a dog will just naturally joyful himself all
over when the trail doubles back on itself, an' a dog