me back, you had to
come; therefore he did not want to be told to come. Doctor Dell had told
him that he could go on roundup some day--the Kid had decided that this
was the day, but that it would be foolish to mention the decision to
anyone. People had a way of disagreeing with one's decisions--especially
Doctor Dell, she always said one was too little. The Kid thought he was
getting pretty big, since he could stand on something and put the saddle
on Silver his own self, and cinch it and everything; plenty big enough
to get out and help the bunch when they needed help.

He did not look so very big as he went trudging down alongside the
creek, stumbling now and then in the coarse grass that hid the scattered
rocks. He could not keep his head twisted around to look under Silver's
neck and watch the hill trail, and at the same time see where he was
putting his feet. And if he got on Silver now he would be seen and
recognized at the first glance which Doctor Dell would give to the
coulee when she rode over the brow of the hill. Walking beside Silver's
shoulder, on the side farthest from the bluff, he might not be seen at
all; Doctor Dell might look and think it was just a horse walking along
the creek his own self.

The Kid was extremely anxious that he should not be seen. The bunch
needed him. Uncle Gee-gee said they needed help. The Kid thought they
would expect him to come and help with his "string", He helped Daddy
Chip drive the horses up from the little pasture, these days; just
yesterday he had brought the whole bunch up, all by his own self, and
had driven them into the big corral alone, and Daddy Chip had stood
by the gate and watched him do it. Daddy Chip had lifted him down from
Silver's back, and had squeezed him hard, and had called him a real, old
cowpuncher. The Kid got warm all inside him when he, thought of it.

When a turn in the narrow creek-bottom hid him completely from the ranch
buildings and the hill trail, the Kid led Silver alongside a low bank,
climbed into the saddle. Then he made Silver lope all the way to the
gate.

He had some trouble with that gate. It was a barbed wire gate, such as
bigger men than the Kid sometimes swear over. It went down all right,
but when he came to put it up again, that was another matter. He simply
had to put it up before he could go on. You always had to shut gates
if you found them shut--that was a law of the range which the Kid had
learned so long ago he could n