ox of cigars I bought, and Mrs. Miguel that
there red-and-yella serape I paid ten dollars for in Antelope, and show
Anita me new contract with the Concho for pumpin' water for
seventy-five bones a month, I reckon the rest of it'll come easy. I'm
figurin' strong on them white hosses, likewise. Bein' white'll kind of
look like gettin' married, without me sayin' it. You see, boss, I'm
short on the Spanish talk and so I have to do some figurin'."

"Well, Sun, you have come along a lot since you first hit the Concho!
Go ahead, and good luck to you! If you need any money--"

"I was comin' to that. Seein' as you kind of know me--and seein' I'm
goin' to git hitched--I was thinkin' you might lend me mebby a hundred
on the contrac'."

"I guess I can. Will that be enough?"

"Plenty. You see I was figurin' on buyin' a few head of stock to run
with yourn on the water-hole range."

"Why, I can let you have the stock. You can pay me when you get ready."

"That's just it. You'd kind of give 'em to me and I ain't askin'
favors, except the buckboard and the white hosses."

"But what do you want to monkey with cattle for? You're doing pretty
well with the water."

"That's just it. You see, Anita thinks I'm a rarin', high-ridin',
cussin', tearin', bronco-bustin' cow-puncher from over the hill. I
reckon you know I ain't, but I got to live up to it and kind of let her
down easy-like. I can put on me spurs and chaps onct or twict a week
and go flyin' out and whoopin' around me stock, and scarin' 'em to
death, pertendin' I'm mighty interested in ridin' range. If you got a
lady's goat, you want to keep it. 'Course, later on, I can kind o'
slack up. Then I'm goin' to learn her to read American, and she can
read that piece in the paper about me. I reckon that'll kind of cinch
up the idea that her husband sure is the real thing. But I got to have
them cows till she can learn to read."

"We've got to brand a few yearlings that got by last round-up. Bud
said there was about fifteen of them. You can ride over after you get
settled and help cut 'em out. What iron do you want to put on them?"

"Well, seein' it's me own brand, I reckon it will be like this: A kind
of half-circle for the sun, and a lot of little lines runnin' out to
show that it's shinin', and underneath a straight line meanin' the
earth, which is 'Sundown'--me own brand. Could Johnny make one like
that?"

"I don't know. That's a pretty big order. You