“I reckon you are, sonny,” grinned Hi. “But you’ll lemme help you toss it into the wagon, won’t you? You’re so strong and sassy you’re liable to bust a hole through the box!” “How far to Pike’s Peak, strangers?” asked the woman, anxiously. “A few hundred miles, ma’am.” “It seems a powerful long road,” she sighed. “We’ve come clear from Ohio; drove the whole way. We started last fall, an’ wintered in Missouri. That’s where this baby was born.” “We’ll get there, ma,” encouraged the boy. “Pap’ll feel better now, an’ we’ll go a-whoopin’.” “I hope so,” she faltered. “But they do say there isn’t any gold, anyhow.” Davy felt sorry for her. Evidently so did the Reverend Mr. Baxter. “What is your name, if you please?” he asked. “Jones. Mrs. Jasper Jones. My man’s a blacksmith.” “Well, Mrs. Jones, we understand there’s quite a town going up out at the mountains; and if we get there before you do we’ll trade this flour in for a corner lot and your husband can start in blacksmithing.” “Will you?” she exclaimed, brightening. “Now that’s mighty kind of you.” “I’ll take care of you, ma,” comforted the boy, quickly. “I’ll take care of you an’ pap, too, as soon as we get where there’s some work.” “I believe you will, sonny,” spoke Jim admiringly. “You’ll make the fur fly. We’ll tell ’em you’re coming, so they’ll leave space for you.” And Billy added as good measure: “When you get to the diggin’s, if you don’t see me you ask for Billy Cody. I’ll fix you out.” “Aw, crickity!” gasped the boy, staring. “Say――are you Billy Cody, the Boy Scout?” “I’m Billy Cody, all right,” responded Billy, now somewhat confused, while Hi and Jim and Mr. Baxter laughed loudly. “We know you. We read all about you in the paper,” proclaimed the boy, excited. “That time you fought the Injuns. Say――will you shake hands with me?” “Aw,” stammered Billy, trying to hide behind the wagon, “forget about that, will you? I’m nobody.” “Terrible modest all of a sudden, isn’t he!” chuckled Jim, as he and Hi and the Reverend finished harnessing the mules again. “I killed a big buffalo! Biggest one you ever saw!” squealed Left-over. “Shot him all to pieces jest as he was running into us. Didn’t I, Billy?” “Hooray for Left-over!” cheered Hi. “Well, catch up, boys. We’d better be moving or we’ll never get thar.” And he addressed the other outfit. “Can we do anything more for you?” “No, thank you, strangers,” said both the woman and the man. “We can make it, now our wagon’s out. And that meat’ll taste powerful good.” “Goodby, then,” called the Hee-Haws. “Goodby.” And the woman added. “Don’t forget that corner lot.” “We won’t.” The timber lining the course of the various streams had shrunken, and the streams themselves were dwindling ever smaller. It was a barren country, this, wide and sandy and dotted with occasional thumb-like hills called buttes. Across it wound the trail, marked by dust and canvas-topped wagons.