"You mentioned colts?" "I did so. Colts die anyhow and anyway. It's a solid fact that we've lost more animals in this pasture than anywheres else. I'll take my oath to that." "Good!" said the Professor heartily. "You have given to me information of value." The Professor returned to the corrals. Under the trees, close to the creek, in whose cooling waters stood bottles of beer and wine, a tender calf was being barbecued. Upon long willow spits sizzled and frizzled toothsome morsels, made more toothsome by the addition of a sauce cunningly compounded of chillies, tomatoes, and the pungent onion. The Professor made a noble meal. He was delighted to observe how few of the guests slaked their thirst with water, and he quoted the famous quatrain: "Let princes revel at the pump; Let peers with ponds make free; But whisky, beer, or even wine, Is good enough for me." After the _rodeo_, the Professor lighted a large cigar and composed himself under a live-oak. His mind, ever active, was wandering through the home-pasture seeking the fatal spring. He was trying to estimate the effect of silicious matter upon the mucous membrane of a cow, when he saw Dan, sombrero in hand, bowing low before him. "Hello!" said the Professor, his eye resting professionally upon Dan's splendid proportions. What a "subject" to cut up! What a skeleton to articulate! "Perfessor!" said Dan, "I want you to hev a look at me." The Professor looked at him. "My young friend," he said genially, "you're worth looking at. Do you drink water?" "When I can't git nothing else," replied Dan. "Water it is, and lots of it, except when I strike town." "If you must drink water," said the Professor with authority, "have it distilled." "Jeeroosalem!" exclaimed Dan. "That's a gilt-edged idea. Perfessor, ye're a pathologist, ain't yer?" The Professor nodded. Genius, however exalted, acknowledges unsolicited testimonials from any source. He saw plainly that in Dan's eyes he loomed gigantic. "I am," he replied graciously. "A path-finder, a seeker-out of noo tracks to knowledge?" "You might express it worse," said the Professor. "What can I do for you?" "I'm a mighty sick man," said Dan solemnly. The Professor was so astonished that he nearly bit through his excellent cigar; but at once a flame sparkled in his grey eyes. If Dan, with his appearance of robust health, was really a mighty sick man, why, then, his case challenged attention. He stood up and, so to speak, spread his wings, hovering over his lawful prey. "What's wrong?" he demanded. "I'm afire with itching. At this moment I feel as if some dev'lish imps was stickin' needles into me." The Professor felt his pulse, looked at his tongue, and nodded sapiently. "You've been drinking the water of that new spring." "I hev. I helped open it up." "Did you drink much of it?" "Oceans!"