The Flying U's Last Stand

by B. M. Bower

  CHAPTER 3. THE KID LEARNS SOME THINGS ABOUT HORSES

  The Kid--Chip's Kid and the Little Doctor's--was six years old and bigfor his age. Also he was a member in good standing of the Happy Familyand he insisted upon being called Buck outside the house; within it theLittle Doctor insisted even more strongly that he answer to the manyendearing names she had invented for him, and to the more formal one ofClaude, which really belonged to Daddy Chip.

  Being six years old and big for his age, and being called Buck byhis friends, the Happy Family, the Kid decided that he should have aman's-sized horse of his own, to feed and water and ride and proudlycall his "string." Having settled that important point, he began to castabout him for a horse worthy his love and ownership, and speedily hedecided that matter also.

  Therefore, he ran bareheaded up to the blacksmith shop where Daddy Chipwas hammering tunefully upon the anvil, and delivered his ultimatum fromthe door way.

  "Silver's going to be my string, Daddy Chip, and I'm going to feed himmyself and ride him myself and nobody else can touch him 'thout I saythey can."

  "Yes?" Chip squinted along a dully-glowing iron bar, laid it back uponthe anvil and gave it another whack upon the side that still bulged alittle.

  "Yes, and I'm going to saddle him myself and everything. And I want youto get me some jingling silver spurs like Mig has got, with chains thathang away down and rattle when you walk." The Kid lifted one small footand laid a grimy finger in front of his heel by way of illustration.

  "Yes?" Chip's eyes twinkled briefly and immediately became intent uponhis work.

  "Yes, and Doctor Dell has got to let me sleep in the bunk-house with therest of the fellers. And I ain't going to wear a nightie once more! Idon't have to, do I, Daddy Chip? Not with lace on it. Happy Jack saysI'm a girl long as I wear lace nighties, and I ain't a girl. Am I, DaddyChip?"

  "I should say not!" Chip testified emphatically, and carried the ironbar to the forge for further heating.

  "I'm going on roundup too, tomorrow afternoon." The Kid's conceptionof time was extremely sketchy and had no connection whatever with thecalendar. "I'm going to keep Silver in the little corral and let himsleep in the box stall where his leg got well that time he broke it.I 'member when he had a rag tied on it and teased for sugar. And theCountess has got to quit a kickin' every time I need sugar for mystring. Ain't she, Daddy Chip? She's got to let us men alone or there'llbe something doing!"

  "I'd tell a man," said Chip inattentively, only half hearing thewar-like declaration of his offspring--as is the way with busy fathers.

  "I'm going to take a ride now on Silver. I guess I'll ride in to DryLake and get the mail--and I'm 'pletely outa the makings, too."

  "Uh-hunh--a--what's that? You keep off Silver. He'll kick the daylightsout of you, Kid. Where's your hat? Didn't your mother tell you she'd tiea sunbonnet on you if you didn't keep your hat on? You better hike backand get it, young man, before she sees you."

  The Kid stared mutinously from the doorway. "You said I could haveSilver. What's the use of having a string if a feller can't ride it? AndI CAN ride him, and he don't kick at all. I rode him just now, in thelittle pasture to see if I liked his gait better than the others. I rodeBanjo first and I wouldn't own a thing like him, on a bet. Silver'll dome till I can get around to break a real one."

  Chip's hand dropped from the bellows while he stared hard at the Kid."Did you go down in the pasture and--Words failed him just then.

  "I'd TELL a man I did!" the Kid retorted, with a perfect imitationof Chip's manner and tone when crossed. "I've been trying out all thedarned benchest you've got--and there ain't a one I'd give a punchednickel for but Silver. I'd a rode Shootin' Star, only he wouldn't standstill so I could get onto him. Whoever broke him did a bum job. Thehorse I break will stand, or I'll know the reason why. Silver'll stand,all right. And I can guide him pretty well by slapping his neck. You dida pretty fair job when you broke Silver," the Kid informed his fatherpatronizingly.

  Chip said something which the Kid was not supposed to hear, and satsuddenly down upon the stone rim of the forge. It had never beforeoccurred to Chip that his Kid was no longer a baby, but a mostadventurous man-child who had lived all his life among men and whosemental development had more than kept pace with his growing body. He hadlaughed with the others at the Kid's quaint precociousness of speech andat his frank worship of range men and range life. He had gone to sometrouble to find a tractable Shetland pony the size of a burro, and hadtaught the Kid to ride, decorously and fully protected from accident.

  He and the Little Doctor had been proud of the Kid's masculine traits asthey manifested themselves in the management of that small specimen ofhorse flesh. That the Kid should have outgrown so quickly his contentwith Stubby seemed much more amazing than it really was. He eyed the Kiddoubtfully for a minute, and then grinned.

  "All that don't let you out on the hat question," he said, evading thereal issue and laying stress upon the small matter of obedience, as isthe exasperating habit of parents. "You don't see any of the bunch goingaround bareheaded. Only women and babies do that."

  "The bunch goes bareheaded when they get their hats blowed off in thecreek," the Kid pointed out unmoved. "I've seen you lose your hat mor'nonce, old timer. That's nothing." He sent Chip a sudden, adorable smilewhich proclaimed him the child of his mother and which never failed tothrill Chip secretly,--it was so like the Little Doctor. "You lend meyour hat for a while, dad," he said. "She never said what hat I had towear, just so it's a hat. Honest to gran'ma, my hat's in the creek andI couldn't poke it out with a stick or anything. It sailed into theswimmin' hole. I was goin' to go after it," he explained further,"but--a snake was swimmin--and I hated to 'sturb him."

  Chip drew a sharp breath and for one panicky moment consideredimperative the hiring of a body-guard for his Kid.

  "You keep out of the pasture, young man!" His tone was stern to matchhis perturbation. "And you leave Silver alone--"

  The Kid did not wait for more. He lifted up his voice and wept inbitterness of spirit. Wept so that one could hear him a mile. Wept sothat J. G. Whitmore reading the Great Falls Tribune on the porch, laiddown his paper and asked the world at large what ailed that doggoned kidnow.

  "Dell, you better go see what's wrong," he called afterwards through theopen door to the Little Doctor, who was examining a jar of germcultures in her "office." "Chances is he's fallen off the stable orsomething--though he sounds more mad than hurt. If it wasn't for mydoggoned back--"

  The Little Doctor passed him hurriedly. When her man-child wept, itNeeded no suggestion from J. G. or anyone else to send her flying to therescue. So presently she arrived breathless at the blacksmith shop' andfound Chip within, looking in urgent Need of reinforcements, and the Kidyelling ragefully beside the door and kicking the log wall with viciousboot-tees.

  "Shut up now or I'll spank you!" Chip was saying desperately when hiswife appeared. "I wish you'd take that Kid and tie him up, Dell," headded snappishly. "Here he's been riding all the horses in the littlepasture--and taking a chance on breaking his neck! And he ain'tsatisfied with Stubby--he thinks he's entitled to Silver!"

  "Well, why not? There, there, honey--men don't cry when things gowrong--"

  "No--because they can take it out in cussing!" wailed the Kid. "Iwouldn't cry either, if you'd let me swear all I want to!"

  Chip turned his back precipitately and his shoulders were seen to shake.The Little Doctor looked shocked.

  "I want Silver for my string!" cried the Kid, artfully transferring hisappeal to the higher court. "I can ride him--'cause I have rode him, inthe pasture; and he never bucked once or kicked or anything. Doggone it,he likes to have me ride him! He comes a-runnin' up to me when I go downthere, and I give him sugar. And then he waits till I climb on his back,and then we chase the other horses and play ride circle. He wants tobe my string!" Something in the feel of his mother's arm around hisshoulder whispered hope to the Kid. He looked up at her with his mostendearing smile. "You
come down there and I'll show you," he wheedled."We're pals. And I guess YOU wouldn't like to have the boys call you TomThumb, a-ridin' Stubby. He's nothing but a five-cent sample of a horse.Big Medicine says so. I--I'd rather walk than ride Stubby. And I'mgoing on roundup. The boys said I could go when I get a real horse underme--and I want Silver. Daddy Chip said 'yes' I could have him. And nowhe's Injun-giver. Can't I have him, Doctor Dell?"

  The gray-blue eyes clashed with the brown. "It wouldn't hurt anythingto let the poor little tad show us what he can do," said the gray-blueeyes.

  "Oh--all right," yielded the brown, and their owner threw the iron barupon the cooling forge and began to turn down his sleeves. "Why don'tyou make him wear a hat?" he asked reprovingly. "A little more and hewon't pay any attention to anything you tell him. I'd carry out thatsunbonnet bluff, anyway, if I were you."

  "Now, Daddy Chip! I 'splained to you how I lost my hat," reproached theKid, clinging fast to the Little Doctor's hand.

  "Yes--and you 'splained that you'd have gone into that deep hole anddrowned--with nobody there to pull you out--if you hadn't been scared ofa water snake," Chip pointed out relentlessly.

  "I wasn't 'zactly scared," amended the Kid gravely. "He was havin' sucha good time, and he was swimmin' around so--comf'table--and it wasn'tpolite to 'sturb him. Can't I have Silver?"

  "We'll go down and ask Silver what he thinks about it," said the LittleDoctor, anxious to make peace between her two idols. "And we'll see ifDaddy Chip can get the hat. You must wear a hat, honey; you know whatmother told you--and you know mother keeps her word."

  "I wish dad did," the Kid commented, passing over the hat question. "Hesaid I could have Silver, and keep him in a box stall and feed him myown self and water him my own self and nobody's to touch him but me."

  "Well, if daddy said all that--we'll have to think it over, and consultSilver and see what he has to say about it."

  Silver, when consulted, professed at least a willingness to own the Kidfor his master. He did indeed come trotting up for sugar; and when hehad eaten two grimy lumps from the Kid's grimier hand, he permittedthe Kid to entice him up to a high rock, and stood there while the Kidclambered upon the rock and from there to his sleek back. He even waiteduntil the Kid gathered a handful of silky mane and kicked him on theribs; then he started off at a lope, while the Kid risked his balanceto cast a triumphant grin--that had a gap in the middle--back at hisastonished parents.

  "Look how the little devil guides him!" exclaimed Chip surrenderingly."I guess he's safe enough, old Silver seems to sabe he's got a kid totake care of. He sure would strike a different gait with me! Lord howthe time slides by; I can't seem to get it through me that the Kid'sgrowing up."

  The Little Doctor sighed a bit. And the Kid, circling grandly on the farside of the little pasture, came galloping back to hear the verdict. Itpleased him--though he was inclined to mistake a great privilege for aright that must not be denied. He commanded his Daddy Chip to open thegate for him so he could ride Silver to the stable and put him in thebox stall; which was a superfluous kindness, as Chip tried to point outand failed to make convincing.

  The Kid wanted Silver in the box stall, where he could feed him andwater him his own self. So into the box stall Silver reluctantly went,and spent a greater part of the day with his head stuck out through thewindow, staring enviously at his mates in the pasture.

  For several days Chip watched the Kid covertly whenever his small feetstrayed stableward; watched and was full of secret pride at the mannerin which the Kid rose to his new responsibility. Never did a "string"receive the care which Silver got, and never did rider sit more proudlyupon his steed than did the Kid sit upon Silver. There seemed to bepractically no risk--Chip was amazed at the Kid's ability to ride.Besides, Silver was growing old--fourteen years being considered ripeold age in a horse. He was more given to taking life with a placidoptimism that did not startle easily. He carried the Kid's light weighteasily, and he had not lost all his springiness of muscle. The LittleDoctor rode him sometimes, and loved his smooth gallop and his eventemper; now she loved him more when she saw how careful he was of theKid. She besought the Kid to be careful of Silver also, and was mostmanfully snubbed for her solicitude.

  The Kid had owned Silver for a week, and considered that he wasqualified to give advice to the Happy Family, including his Daddy Chip,concerning the proper care of horses. He stood with his hands upon hiships and his feet far apart, and spat into the corral dust and toldBig Medicine that nobody but a pilgrim ever handled a horse the wayBig Medicine was handling Deuce. Whereat Big Medicine gave a bellowinghaw-haw-haw and choked it suddenly when he saw that the Kid desired himto take the criticism seriously.

  "All right, Buck," he acceded humbly, winking openly at the Native Son."I'll try m'best, old-timer. Trouble with me is, I never had nobody tolearn me how to handle a hoss."

  "Well, you've got me, now," Buck returned calmly. "I don't ride MYstring without brushing the hay out of his tail. There's a big longhay stuck in your horse's tail." He pointed an accusing finger, and BigMedicine silently edged close to Douce's rump and very carefully removedthe big, long hay. He took a fine chance of getting himself kicked, buthe did not tell the Kid that.

  "That all right now, Buck?" Big Medicine wanted to know, when he hadaccomplished the thing without accident.

  "Oh, it'll do," was the frugal praise he got. "I've got to go and feedmy string, now. And after a while I'll water him. You want to feed yourhorse always before you water him, 'cause eatin' makes him firsty. You'member that, now."

  "I'll sure try to, Buck," Big Medicine promised soberly, and watched theKid go striding away with his hat tilted at the approved Happy-Familyangle and his small hands in his pockets. Big Medicine was thinking ofhis own kid, and wondering what he was like, and if he remembered hisdad. He waved his hand in cordial farewell when the Kid looked backand wrinkled his nose in the adorable, Little-Doctor smile he had, andturned his attention to Deuce.

  The Kid made straight for the box stall and told Silver hello over thehalf door. Silver turned from gazing out of the window, and cameforward expectantly, and the Kid told him to wait a minute and not be soimpatience Then he climbed upon a box, got down a heavy canvas nose-bagwith leather bottom, and from a secret receptacle behind the oats box hebrought a paper bag of sugar and poured about a teacupful into the bag.Daddy Chip had impressed upon him what would be the tragic consequencesif he fed oats to Silver five times a day. Silver would die, and itwould be the Kid that killed him. Daddy Chip had not said anything aboutsugar being fatal, however, and the Countess could not always standguard over the sugar sack. So Silver had a sweet taste in his mouthtwelve hours of the twenty-four, and was getting a habit of licking hislips reminiscently during the other twelve.

  The Kid had watched the boys adjust nose bags ever since he couldtoddle. He lugged it into the stall, set it artfully upon the floor andlet Silver thrust in his head to the eyes: then he pulled the strap overSilver's neck and managed to buckle it very securely. He slapped thesleek neck afterward as his Daddy Chip did, hugged it the way DoctorDell did, and stood back to watch Silver revel in the bag.

  "'S good lickums?" he asked gravely, because he had once heard hismother ask Silver that very question, in almost that very tone.

  At that moment an uproar outside caught his youthful attention. Helistened a minute, heard Pink's voice and a shout of laughter, and ranto see what was going on; for where was excitement, there the Kid wasalso, as nearly in the middle of it as he could manage. His going wouldnot have mattered to Silver, had he remembered to close the half-door ofthe stall behind him; even that would not have mattered, had he not leftthe outer door of the stable open also.

  The cause of the uproar does not greatly matter, except that the Kidbecame so rapturously engaged in watching the foolery of the HappyFamily that he forgot all about Silver. And since sugar produces thirst,and Silver had not smelled water since morning, he licked the last sweetgrain from the inside of the nose bag and th
en walked out of the stalland the stable and made for the creek--and a horse cannot drink witha nose bag fastened over his face. All he can do, if he succeeds ingetting his nose into the water, is to drown himself most expeditiouslyand completely.

  Silver reached the creek unseen, sought the deepest hole and tried todrink. Since his nose was covered with the bag he could not do so but hefussed and splashed and thrust his head deeper until the water ran intothe bag from the top. He backed and snorted and strangled, and in aminute he fell. Fortunately he struggled a little, and in doing so heslid backward down the bank so that his head was up the slope a and thewater ran out of the bag, which was all that saved him.

  He was a dead horse, to all appearances at least, when Slim spied himand gave a yell to bring every human being on the ranch at a run. TheKid came with the rest, gave one scream and hid his face in the LittleDoctor's skirts, and trembled so that his mother was more frightenedfor him than for the horse, and had Chip carry him to the house where hecould not watch the first-aid efforts of the Happy Family.

  They did not say anything, much. By their united strength they pulledSilver up the bank so that his limp head hung downward. Then they beganto work over him exactly as if he had been a drowned man, except thatthey did not, of course, roll him over a barrel. They moved his legsbackward and forward, they kneaded his paunch, they blew into hisnostrils, they felt anxiously for heart-beats. They sweated and gave upthe fight, saying that it was no use. They saw a quiver of the musclesover the chest and redoubled their efforts, telling one anotherhopefully that he was alive, all right. They saw finally a quiver of thenostrils as well, and one after another they laid palms upon his heart,felt there a steady beating and proclaimed the fact profanely.

  They pulled him then into a more comfortable position where the sunshone warmly and stood around him in a crude circle and watched formore pronounced symptoms of recovery, and sent word to the Kid that hisstring was going to be all right in a little while.

  The information was lost upon the Kid, who wept hysterically in hisDaddy Chip's arms listen to anything they told him. He had seen Silverstretched out dead, with his back in the edge of the creek and his feetsprawled at horrible angles, and the sight obsessed him and forbadecomfort. He had killed his string; nothing was clear in his mind savethat, and he screamed with his face hidden from his little world.

  The Little Doctor, with anxious eyes and puckered eyebrows, pouredsomething into a teaspoon and helped Chip fight to get it down the Kid'sthroat. And the Kid shrieked and struggled and strangled, as is the wayof kids the world over, and tried to spit out the stuff and couldn't, sohe screamed the louder and held his breath until he was purple, and hisparents were scared stiff. The Old Man hobbled to the door in the midstof the uproar and asked them acrimoniously why they didn't make thatdoggoned Kid stop his howling; and when Chip, his nerves alreadystrained to the snapping point, told him bluntly to get out and mindhis own business, he hobbled away again muttering anathemas against thewhole outfit.

  The Countess rushed in from out of doors and wanted to know what underthe shinin' sun was the matter with that kid, and advised his franticparents to throw water in his face. Chip told her exactly what he hadtold the Old Man, in exactly the same tone; so the Countess retreated,declaring that he wouldn't be let to act that way if he was her kid, andthat he was plumb everlastingly spoiled.

  The Happy Family heard the disturbance and thought the Kid was beingspanked for the accident, which put every man of them in a fightinghumor toward Chip, the Little Doctor, the Old Man and the whole world.Pink even meditated going up to the White House to lick Chip--orat least tell him what he thought of him--and he had plenty ofsympathizers; though they advised him half-heartedly not to buy in toany family mixup.

  It was into this storm centre that Andy Green rode headlong with his ownburden of threatened disaster.