ust for all the world as if the watchdog
had gone on a strike for higher wages. "Well, you're right about that,"
sez I. "If I owned a place like this, I wouldn't board a man who didn't
do more than I do. That's one reason why I'm goin' to travel on a
little--I 'm gettin' so rusty that the creakin' o' my joints sets my
teeth on edge."

"Poor old man," sez Jabez, sarcastic. "I saw you vaultin' over Pluto
this mornin'. You'd better be careful, you're liable to snap some o'
your brittle bones. I'll have to put you on a pension."

"Pension bell!" I snaps. "I've been pensioned too long already. The'
ain't any chance for a man with get-up, over a low grade coffee-cooler
on this place, an' I 'm sick of it. I'm goin' to hunt up a job where it
will pay me to do my best."

"How much pay do you want, for heaven's sake?" sez he.

"I don't want any more pay for what I 'm doin'," sez I, "but I do want
more opportunity. You don't keep any out an' out foreman here an'--"

"An' it wouldn't make any difference if I did," he snaps in. "It's
allus best to get an imported foreman, an' not have any jealousy; but
confound you, I pay six men on this place foremen's wages--an' you're
one of 'em."

"Six?" sez I.

"Yes, I raised Bill Andrews' pay last week. He does more work than any
of you, an' he ain't all the time growlin'. He won't never have any
friends either, so if I was to choose a foreman he'd be my pick."

"I was foreman of the Lion Head a good many years ago," sez I, "an' I
built it up, an' my work was appreciated: but I was a fool kid then.
Now I 'm gettin' along in years an' I don't intend to waste any more
o' my life."

"How old are ya, Happy?" sez he, laughin'.

"Well, I'll be thirty years old--before so many more years," sez I,
lookin' full as indignant as I felt, I reckon.

"You're nothin' but a kid in most things," sez Jabez, an' his voice was
so friendly that I began to cool. Then he said, "Why, I never think of
you like I do the rest o' the boys, though I rely on you a heap more.
You've allus been like one o' the family, like; an' you an' Barbie have
played around together until most o' the time I think of ya as about
the same age; but if it's anything in the money line, why speak out. I
was a young feller myself once, an' if you've happened to run up any
debts on some o' your town trips, why I'll pass you over a little extra
an' take it out in laughin' at you."

By George, he made it hard for me. One moment he'd