by B. M. Bower
CHAPTER 9. THE HAPPY FAMILY BUYS A BUNCH OF CATTLE
With the Kid riding gleefully upon Weary's shoulder they trooped up thepath their own feet had helped wear deep to the bunk-house. They lookedin at the open door and snorted at the cheerlessness of the place.
"Why don't you come back here and stay?" the Kid demanded. "I was goingto sleep down here with you--and now Doctor Dell won't let me. Thesehobees are no good. They're damn' bone-head. Daddy Chip says so. I wishyou'd come back, so I can sleep with you. One man's named Ole and he'sgot a funny eye that looks at the other one all the time. I wish you'dcome back."
The Happy Family wished the same thing, but they did not say so. Insteadthey told the Kid to ask his mother if he couldn't come and visit themin their new shacks, and promised indulgences that would have shockedthe Little Doctor had she heard them. So they went on to the house,where the Old Man sat on the porch looking madder than when they hadleft him three weeks before.
"Why don't yuh run them nesters outa the country?" he demanded peevishlywhen they were close enough for speech. "Here they come and accuse meto my face of trying to defraud the gov'ment. Doggone you boys, whatyou think you're up to, anyway? What's three or four thousand acres whenthey're swarming in here like flies to a butcherin'? They can't make aliving--serve 'em right. What you doggone rowdies want now?"
Not a cordial welcome, that--if they went no deeper than his words. Butthere was the old twinkle back of the querulousness in the Old Man'seyes, and the old pucker of the lips behind his grizzled whiskers."You've got that doggone Kid broke to foller yuh so we can't keep himon the ranch no more," he added fretfully. "Tried to run away twice,on Silver. Chip had to go round him up. Found him last time pretty nearover to Antelope coulee, hittin' the high places for town. Might as welltake yuh back, I guess, and save time running after the Kid."
"We've got to hold down our claims," Weary minded him regretfully. Inthree weeks, he could see a difference the Old Man, and the change hurthim.
Lines were deeper drawn, and the kind old eyes were a shade more sunken.
"What's that amount to?" grumbled the Old Man, looking from one to theother under his graying eye brows. "You can't stop them dry-farmers fromtaking the country. Yuh might as well try to dip the Missouri dry with abucket. They'll flood the country with stock--"
"No, they won't," put in Big Medicine, impatient for the real meat oftheir errand. "By cripes, we got a scheme to beat that--you tell 'im,Weary."
"We want to buy a bunch of cattle from you," Weary said obediently. "Wewant to graze our claims, instead of trying to crop the land. We haven'tany fence up, so we'll have to range-herd our stock, of course. I--don'thardly think any nester stock will get by us, J. G. And seeing our landruns straight through from Meeker's line fence to yours, we kinda thinkwe've got the nesters pretty well corralled. They're welcome to therange between Antelope coulee and Dry Lake, far as we're concerned. Soonas we can afford it," he added tranquilly, "we'll stretch a fence alongour west line that'll hold all the darn milkcows they've a mind to shipout here."
"Huh!" The Old Man studied them quizzically, his chin on his chest.
"How many yuh want?" he asked abruptly.
"All you'll sell us. We want to give mortgages, with the stock forsecurity."
"Oh, yuh do, ay? What if I have to foreclose on yuh?" The pucker of hislips grew more pronounced. "Where do you git off at, then?"
"Well, we kinda thought we could fix it up to save part of the increaseouta the wreck, anyway."
"Oh. That's it ay?" He studied them another minute. "You'll want all mybest cows, too, I reckon--all that grade stock I shipped in last spring.Ay?"
"We wouldn't mind," grinned Weary, glancing at the others roosting atease along the edge of the porch.
"Think you could handle five-hundred head--the pick uh the bunch?"
"Sure, we could! We'd rather split 'em up amongst us, though--let everyfellow buy so many. We can throw in together on the herding."
"Think you can keep the milk-cows between you and Dry Lake, ay?" The OldMan chuckled--the first little chuckle since the Happy Family left himso unceremoniously three weeks before. "How about that, Pink?"
"Why, I think we can," chirped Pink cheerfully.
"Huh! Well, you're the toughest bunch, take yuh up one side and downthe other, I ever seen keep onta jail--I guess maybe you can do it. Butlemme tell you boys something--and I want you to remember it: You don'twant to git the idea in your heads you're going to have any snap; youain't. If I know B from a bull's foot, you've got your work cut out foryuh. I've been keeping cases pretty close on this dry-farm craze, andthis stampede for claims. Folks are land crazy. They've got the ideathat a few acres of land is going to make 'em free and independent--andit don't matter much what the land is, or where it is. So long as it'sland, and they can git it from the government for next to nothing,they're satisfied. And yuh want to remember that. Yuh don't want to takeit for granted they're going to take a look at your deadline and backup. If they ship in stock, they're going to see to it that stock don'tstarve. You'll have to hold off men and women that's making their laststand, some of 'em, for a home of their own. They ain't going to giveup if they can help it. You get a man with his back agin the wall, andhe'll fight till he drops. I don't need to tell yuh that."
The Happy Family listened to him soberly, their eyes staring broodily atthe picture he conjured.
"Well, by golly, we're makin' our last stand, too," Slim blurted withhis customary unexpectedness. "Our back's agin the wall right now. If wecan't hold 'em back from takin' what little range is left, this outfit'sgoing under. We got to hold 'em, by golly, er there won't be no moreFlying U."
"Well," said Andy Green quietly, "that's all right. We're going to hold'em."
The Old Man lifted his bent head and looked from one to another. Prideshone in his eyes, that had lately stared resentment. "Yuh know, don'tyuh, the biggest club they can use?" He leaned forward a little, hislips working under his beard.
"Sure, we know. We'll look out for that." Weary smiled hearteningly.
"We want a good lawyer to draw up those mortgages," put in the NativeSon lazily. "And we'll pay eight per cent. interest."
"Doggonedest crazy bunch ever I struck," grumbled the Old Man withgrateful insincerity. "What you fellers don't think of, there ain't anyuse in mentioning. Oh, Dell! Bring out that jug Blake sent me! Doggonedthirsty bunch out here--won't stir a foot till they sample that wine!Got to get rid of 'em somehow--they claim to be full uh business asa jack rabbit is of fleas! When yuh want to git out and round up themcows? Wagon's over on Dry creek som'ers--or ought to be. Yuh might takeyour soogans and ride ove' there tomorrow or next day and ketch 'em.I'll write a note to Chip and tell 'im what's to be done. And whileyou're pickin' your bunch you can draw wages just the same as ever, andhelp them double-dutch blisterin' milk-fed pilgrims with the calf crop."
"We'll sure do that," promised Weary for the bunch. "We can start in themorning, all right."
"Take a taste uh this wine. None of your tobacco-juice stuff; this comesstraight from Fresno. Senator Blake sent it the other day. Fill up thatglass, Dell! What yuh want to be so doggone stingy fer? Think this bunchuh freaks are going to stand for that? They can't git the taste outaless'n a pint. This ain't any doggone liver-tonic like you dope out."
The Little Doctor smiled understandingly and filled their glasses withthe precious wine from sunland. She did not know what had happened, butshe did know that the Old Man had seized another hand-hold on life inthe last hour, and she was grateful. She even permitted the Kid totake a tiny sip, just because the Happy Family hated to see him refusedanything he wanted.
So Flying U coulee was for the time being filled with the same oldlaughter and the same atmosphere of care-free contentment with life. TheCountess stewed uncomplainingly in the kitchen, cooking dinner for theboys. The Old Man grumbled hypocritically at them from his big chair,and named their faults in the tone that transmuted them into virtues.The Little Doct
or heard about Miss Allen and her three partners, whowere building a four-room shack on the four corners of four claims, andhow Irish had been caught more than once in the act of staring fixedlyin the direction of that shack. She heard a good many things, and sheguessed a good many more.
By mid afternoon the Old Man was fifty per cent brighter and better thanhe had been in the morning, and he laughed and bullied them as of old.When they left he told them to clear out and stay out, and that if hecaught them hanging around his ranch, and making it look as if he werebacking them and trying to defraud the government, he'd sic the dog ontothem. Which tickled the Kid immensely, because there wasn't any dog tosic.