Macmillan seized the reins from the ground, and walking up and down the length of his six-horse team, began to address them singly and in the mass in terms so sulphurously descriptive of their ancestry, their habits, and their physical and psychological characteristics, that when he gave the word in a mighty culminating roar of blasphemous excitation, each of the bemired beasts seemed to be inspired with a special demon, and so exerted itself to the utmost limit of its powers that in a single minute the load stood high and dry on solid ground.

One other characteristic made Macmillan one of the most trusted of the freighters upon the trail.  While in charge of his caravan he was an absolute teetotaler, making up, however, for this abstinence at the end of the trip by a spree whose duration was limited only by the extent of his credit.

It was to Mr. Macmillan’s care that Mrs. French had committed Kalman with many and anxious injunctions, and it is Macmillan’s due to say that every moment of that four weeks’ journey was one of undiluted delight to the boy, although it is to be feared that not the least enjoyable moments in that eventful journey were those when he stood lost in admiration while his host, with the free use of his sulphurously psychological lever, pried his team out of the frequent sleughs that harassed the trail.  And before Macmillan had delivered up his charge, his pork and hard tack, aided by the ardent suns and sweeping winds of the prairie, had done their work, so that it was a brown and thoroughly hardy looking lad that was handed over to Jimmy Green at the Crossing.

“Here is Jack French’s boy,” said Macmillan.  “And it’s him that’s got the ear for music.  In another trip he’ll dust them horses out of a hole with any of us.  Swear!  Well, I should smile!  By the powers! he makes me feel queer.”

“Swear,” echoed a thick voice from behind the speaker, “who’s swearing?”

“Hello!  Jack,” said Macmillan quietly.  “Got a jag on, eh?”

“Attend to your own business, sir,” said Jack French, whose dignity grew and whose temper shortened with every bottle.  “Answer my question, sir.  Who is swearing?”

“Oh, there’s nothing to it, Jack,” said Macmillan.  “I was telling Jimmy here that that’s a mighty smart boy of yours, and with a great tongue for language.”

“I’ll break his back,” growled Jack French, his face distorted with a scowl.  “Look here, boy,” he continued, whirling fiercely upon the lad, “you are sent to me by the best woman on earth to make a man of you, and I’ll have no swearing on my ranch,” delivering himself of which sentiment punctuated by a feu de joie of muddled oaths, he lurched away into the back shop and fell into a drunken sleep, leaving the boy astonished and for some minutes speechless.

“Is that her brother?” he asked at length, when he had found voice.

“Whose brother?” said Jimmy Green.