m so! Car-cookin's well enough, but for me--give me a table
that won't go wobblety-wobble all the time."

Dorothy roused from her idleness and began to collect her own
"treasures." They had accumulated to a surprising degree during this
journey from San Diego to Denver; for their genial host had indulged
his young guests in all their whims and, at the various stops along
the way, they had purchased all sorts of things, from baskets to
blankets, horned toads on cards, centipedes in vials of alcohol,
Indian dolls and pottery, and other "trash," as Aunt Betty considered
it. In the roomy private car these had given but little trouble; now
Alfaretta expressed the thought of both girls as well as of the lad,
Leslie, when after a vain effort to pack an especially ugly red-clay
"image," she exclaimed:

"A fool and his money! That's what I was. Felt as rich as a queen,
startin' out with all them earnin's and presents in my pocket-book. Now
I haven't got a cent, hardly, and I'd ha' been better off if I hadn't a
had them! There! that paper's busted again! Does beat the Dutch the way
things act! Just plain _things_! If they was folks you could box their
ears, but you can't do a thing to things, not a thing! Only--"

"Throw them away! That's what I'm going to do with my stuff!" cried
Leslie, from a far corner, standing up and wiping his face, after his
own bit of packing. "This old musket that that man in uniform assured
me had belonged to General Custer--Dad says never saw a soldier's
hands, let alone Custer's. Says he knew that all the time, even when
I was dickering for it. Says--"

Dorothy looked up from her own task to ask:

"Why should he let you buy it then?"

"For experience, likely. That's the way he likes to have us learn, he
claims."

"Humph! But Aunt Betty says it's wicked to waste money. One ought only
to use it for some good purpose."

A shout of derision came from both Alfy and Leslie, at this remark, and
they pointed in high glee at a basketful of things Dorothy was vainly
trying to make look a tidy bundle. She had to join in the laughter
against herself and Mr. Ford came forward to lend a hand or offer
advice, as need be.

"So you're up against a tough proposition, are you, youngsters? How
much of all that stuff do you really want?"

"Not a scrap!" said Alfaretta, frankly.

"Good enough! Well, let me tell you. There's a poor old fellow hangs
out just beyond this station who makes his scanty living sell