"I will not! I'm goin' to need all the type I got. Is she purty, Bud?" "She sure is." Bud glanced up at the moon and softly rhapsodized, "Big, devilish gray eyes--they'd drown a man's troubles so deep he'd swear he never had one. Her mouth--if her mouth has never been kissed it should be." "It's goin' to be," Tony murmured, and made a motion of rising to his feet. Big Bob Leverett yanked him down. "You ain't in this, Tony. Bud's givin' _me_ the dope. You gwan to bed. You ain't got no type, and there ain't nothin' to set up for!" "Law-zee, _boss_!" cried a tall young man with unbelievably small feet thrust straight out before him into the moonlight. "Here's one scholar that'll sure never be tardy!" "I'm goin' to whisper an' stick out my tongue at you pelicans, and git to stay after school," Gelle declared. "You--you fellers can go to her darned old school, but I won't," a young, rebellious voice cried from within the open door. "Skookum?" Bud leaned and peered into the dark. "Come on out here, pardner. Why aren't you in bed?" "How'd the kid git in?" Gelle swung his lean body sidewise, reached a long arm into the house and plucked the boy expertly by his middle. "Here he is, Bud. Clumb through the window, I reckon." Skookum wriggled free and sat down in the dirt, crossing his legs and folding his arms in exact imitation of Bud's favorite pose when at ease among his fellows. He glanced up and down the row of cowpunchers leaning against the wall, and the moonlight gilded his hair like a halo and made of his eyes two deep, dark pools. "I don't like her," he stated flatly. "She turned up her nose at--at Maw, and she asked her brother if he s'posed that hid-hid-e-ous creature was any relation to--to Bud. She said she couldn't bear to--to eat Maw's cookin' 'cause it was 'pulsive. And it was chicken dumpluns and--and pie!" Dead silence for a space; then Gelle spoke diffidently, uncertain between apology and resentment. "We get you, Skookum. But you see, Maw--well, she needs to be took kinda gradual, right at first. You know Maw's a kinda hard looker till you git used to her--" "Maw's the purtiest woman in--in Montana!" Skookum declared hotly. "She's cute and--and sweet. When I get big, I'm agoin' to--to marry Maw. I asked her, and she said she--she would. You shut up about Maw. She's purtier than that darned old girl! Ain't she, Bud?" "Handsome is as handsome does makes Maw the most beautiful woman in the world. You're right about that, pardner." Bud's voice had a queer note in it. "You stand up for Maw, Skookum, and I'm right with you. But I don't believe Maw would want you to pass up a chance to learn something. She thought it would be just fine to have a school here. It's that, or go to a boarding school where all the boys would laugh at you, and I don't believe Maw could stand that, pardner. It seems to me that your duty to Maw would make you want to learn just as fast as you can from Miss Brunelle."