“Now, you know I do!  It’s the most serious thing in my whole life—–­except you, of course.  And you know—­”

“I don’t mean that!” Mary Y gave a small stamp with her slipper toe on the porch floor, thereby proving how swiftly her resilient young self was coming back to a normal condition after the strain of the past forty-eight hours.  “You ought to know what I mean.”

Johnny sat down again and looked at her with his eyebrows pulled together.  Mary V had always been more or less puzzling in her swift changes of mood, wherefore this sudden change in her did not greatly surprise him.

“Well, what do you mean, then?” he asked patiently.  “Seems to me I’ve been taking everything too seriously to suit you, till just this minute.  I’ve been pretty serious, let me tell you, about making good, and now I can see my way clear for the first time since all those horses were run off right under my nose, while I was busy with my airplane, getting it in shape to fly.  You’ve been after me all the time because I couldn’t let things slide.  Don’t you think, Mary V, you’re kinda changeable?”

Mary V gave him a quick, intent look and bit her lower lip.  “I only wish I could change you a little bit,” she retorted.  “I don’t want to be disagreeable, Johnny, after you were given up for lost and everything, and then turned out to be all right.  But that’s just the trouble!  You—­”

“The trouble is that I wasn’t killed?  Good golly!”

“No, I don’t mean that at all.  But we thought you were, and everybody in the country was simply frantic, and you weren’t even—­”

“Huh!” Johnny got up, plainly hesitating between dignified retreat and another profitless argument with Mary V. Another, because his acquaintance with her had been one long series of arguments, it seemed to him; and profitless, because Mary V simply would not be logical, or ever stick to one contention, but instead would change her attack in the most bewildering manner.

“I’m very sorry,” he said stiffly, “that the whole country was frantic without due cause.  But I never asked them to take it upon themselves to get all fussed up because I happened to be late for my meals.  I was foolish enough to take it for granted that a man has a right to go about his business without asking permission of the general public.  I didn’t know the public had my welfare on its mind like that.  I’ll have to call a meeting after this, I reckon, and put it to vote whether I can please go up in my little airplane.  Or maybe the public will pass the hat around and buy a string to tie on to me, so I can’t get too far away.  Then they can take turns holding the string and pull me down when they think I’ve been up long enough!  Darned boobs—­what did they want to get up searching parties for?  Couldn’t they find anything else to do, for gosh sake?”

“Why, Johnny Jewel!” Righteous indignation brought Mary V to her feet, trembling a little but with the undaunted spirit of her fighting forebears shining in her eyes.  “Johnny Jewel, you silly, ungrateful boy!  What if you had been hurt somewhere?  You’d have been glad enough then for the public to take some interest in you, I guess!”