right. They saw finally a quiver of the
nostrils as well, and one after another they laid palms upon his heart,
felt there a steady beating and proclaimed the fact profanely.

They pulled him then into a more comfortable position where the sun
shone warmly and stood around him in a crude circle and watched for
more pronounced symptoms of recovery, and sent word to the Kid that his
string was going to be all right in a little while.

The information was lost upon the Kid, who wept hysterically in his
Daddy Chip's arms listen to anything they told him. He had seen Silver
stretched out dead, with his back in the edge of the creek and his feet
sprawled at horrible angles, and the sight obsessed him and forbade
comfort. He had killed his string; nothing was clear in his mind save
that, and he screamed with his face hidden from his little world.

The Little Doctor, with anxious eyes and puckered eyebrows, poured
something into a teaspoon and helped Chip fight to get it down the Kid's
throat. And the Kid shrieked and struggled and strangled, as is the way
of kids the world over, and tried to spit out the stuff and couldn't, so
he screamed the louder and held his breath until he was purple, and his
parents were scared stiff. The Old Man hobbled to the door in the midst
of the uproar and asked them acrimoniously why they didn't make that
doggoned Kid stop his howling; and when Chip, his nerves already
strained to the snapping point, told him bluntly to get out and mind
his own business, he hobbled away again muttering anathemas against the
whole outfit.

The Countess rushed in from out of doors and wanted to know what under
the shinin' sun was the matter with that kid, and advised his frantic
parents to throw water in his face. Chip told her exactly what he had
told the Old Man, in exactly the same tone; so the Countess retreated,
declaring that he wouldn't be let to act that way if he was her kid, and
that he was plumb everlastingly spoiled.

The Happy Family heard the disturbance and thought the Kid was being
spanked for the accident, which put every man of them in a fighting
humor toward Chip, the Little Doctor, the Old Man and the whole world.
Pink even meditated going up to the White House to lick Chip--or
at least tell him what he thought of him--and he had plenty of
sympathizers; though they advised him half-heartedly not to buy in to
any family mixup.

It was into this storm centre that Andy Green rode headlong wit