, but if I were that dog he wouldn't live with
me!

"We have seen lots of cattle and goats and hogs--though Tilly says she
hasn't seen any of the latter under any gate yet. I have seen a mesquite
tree (so I have done one of my things), and it _does_ have thorns. We
are on another prairie now, and oh, how big it is, and such a lot of
grass as there is on it--just as far as you can see, grass, grass,
grass! I guess there won't be any danger of my not having plenty of that
to take home. I have seen lots of men on horseback, but I don't know
whether they were cowboys or not. They did not shoot, anyway, but some
of them did yell.

"Genevieve says cowboys are to meet us, and that probably they will come
away to Bolo in full war paint. I thought it was only Indians who
painted--except silly ladies, of course--and I was going to say so; but
Tilly was there, so I didn't like to. Of course I ought not to mind the
cowboys--if Genevieve likes them, and they are her friends; but I can't
help remembering what Mrs. Miller told me about their 'shooting up
towns' in a very dreadful way when they were angry. I hope none of the
men I want to find will turn out to be cowboys." (Here there were signs
of an attempted erasure, but the words still stood, and immediately
after them came another sentence.) "That is, I mean I should hate to
find that any friends of mine had become cowboys.

"I have just been reading over what I have written, and I am
disappointed in it. I am sure I ought to have mentioned a great many
things about which I have been silent. But there were so many things,
and they all crowded at once before me, so that I had to just touch on
the big things and the tall things--like windmills, for instance.

"We are getting nearer Bolo now, and I must stop and eat some luncheon,
Genevieve says, as we sha'n't have anything else till supper on the
ranch. Oh, I am so excited! Seems as if I couldn't draw a breath deep
enough. And the idea of trying to eat when I feel like this!"

CHAPTER V

THE BOYS PREPARE A WELCOME

On the back gallery of the long, low ranch house, the boys were waiting
for Teresa to ring the bell for supper. Comfortably they lolled about on
hammocks, chairs, and steps, with their shirts open at the neck and
plentifully powdered with the dust of the corral.

From the doorway, Tim Nolan, the ranch foreman, spoke to them hurriedly.

"See here, boys, I'm right sorry, but I've got to see Benson to-morrow