“Enjoy yourself, Nat.  The laugh’s on me.  I’m getting discouraged that I’ll ever have common horse sense.  Isn’t it a shame to be a fool all your life!”

Straw glanced from the bunk to Dell.  “I was just telling the boy, as we rode up the creek, that you needed a whole heap of fixing in your upper loft.  The poor boy tried his best to defend you, but it was easy to see that he hadn’t known you long.”

“And of course you strung him for all he could carry,” said Forrest.  “Here, Dell.  You were in such a hurry to get away that I overlooked warning you against these trail varmints.  Right now, I can see old Nat leading you in under a wet blanket, and your colors dragging.  Don’t believe a word he told you, and don’t even give him a pleasant look while he stays here.”

The discouraged boy brightened, and Joel and Dell were excused, to water and picket the horses.  “You ought to be ashamed of yourself,” resumed Forrest, “brow-beating that boy.  Considering my hard luck, I’ve fallen into angels’ hands.  These boys are darling fellows.  Now before you leave, square yourself with that youngest one.”

“A little jollying while he’s young won’t hurt him,” replied Straw.  “It’s not a bad idea to learn early to believe nothing that you hear and only half of what you see.  If you had been taken snipe hunting oftener when you were young, it wouldn’t hurt you any now.  There are just about so many knocks coming to each of us, and we’ve got to take them along with the croup, chicken-pox, measles, and mumps.”

During the absence of the boys, Forrest informed Straw of the sad condition which confronted the lads, when accident and necessity threw him into their hands.  He also repeated Priest’s opinion of the valuable range, unoccupied above on the Beaver, and urged his assistance in securing some cattle with which to stock and claim it for the boys.

“There’s plenty of flotsam on the trail,” said he, “strays and sore-footed cattle, to occupy this valley and give these boys a start in life.  I never even got thanked for a stray, and I’ve turned hundreds of them loose on these upper ranges, refused on the delivery of a herd.  Somebody gets them, and I want these boys of mine to get a few hundred head during this summer.  Here’s the place to drop your cripples and stray cows.  From what Paul says, there’s range above here for thousands of cattle, and that’s the foundation of a ranch.  Without a hoof on it, it has a value in proportion to its carrying capacity, and Priest and I want these boys to secure it.  They’ve treated me white, and I’m going to make a fight for them.”

The appeal was not in vain.  “Why not,” commented Straw.  “Let me in and we’ll make it three-handed.  My herd is contracted again this year to the same cattle company on the Crazy Woman, in Wyoming, as last season, and I want to fool them this trip.  They got gay on my hands last summer, held me down to the straight road brand at delivery, and I’ll see to it that there are no strays in my herd this year.  I went hungry for fresh beef, and gave those sharks over forty good strays.  They knew I’d have to leave them behind me.  Watch me do it again.”