ee sticks.

Bud went over to her assistance, and soon had her fire going. When he
came back we complimented him playfully upon his gallantry.

"Oh," said Bud, "don't mention it. It's a way I have. Whenever I see a
lady trying to cook things in a pot and having trouble I always go to
the rescue. I done the same thing once in a high-toned house in. New
York City. Heap big society teepee on Fifth Avenue. That Injun lady
kind of recalled it to my mind. Yes, I endeavours to be polite and
help the ladies out."

The camp demanded the particulars.

"I was manager of the Triangle B Ranch in the Panhandle," said Bud.
"It was owned at that time by old man Sterling, of New York. He wanted
to sell out, and he wrote for me to come on to New York and explain
the ranch to the syndicate that wanted to buy. So I sends to Fort
Worth and has a forty dollar suit of clothes made, and hits the trail
for the big village.

"Well, when I got there, old man Sterling and his outfit certainly
laid themselves out to be agreeable. We had business and pleasure so
mixed up that you couldn't tell whether it was a treat or a trade half
the time. We had trolley rides, and cigars, and theatre round-ups, and
rubber parties."

"Rubber parties?" said a listener, inquiringly.

"Sure," said Bud. "Didn't you never attend 'em? You walk around and
try to look at the tops of the skyscrapers. Well, we sold the ranch,
and old man Sterling asks me 'round to his house to take grub on the
night before I started back. It wasn't any high-collared affair--just
me and the old man and his wife and daughter. But they was a
fine-haired outfit all right, and the lilies of the field wasn't in
it. They made my Fort Worth clothes carpenter look like a dealer in
horse blankets and gee strings. And then the table was all pompous
with flowers, and there was a whole kit of tools laid out beside
everybody's plate. You'd have thought you was fixed out to burglarize
a restaurant before you could get your grub. But I'd been in New York
over a week then, and I was getting on to stylish ways. I kind of
trailed behind and watched the others use the hardware supplies, and
then I tackled the chuck with the same weapons. It ain't much trouble
to travel with the high-flyers after you find out their gait. I got
along fine. I was feeling cool and agreeable, and pretty soon I was
talking away fluent as you please, all about the ranch and the West,
and telling 'em how the Indians eat grass