"Well, then he'd be chilly and reckon he'd climb under the stove. But Thomas 'ud be there. "'H-h-h-h-hhhh!' says Tom, in a whisper. "'Er-raow-pht!" says Robert. 'Mmmmm-mm--errrrr--pht!' And so on for some time, the talk growing louder, then, with a yell that would stand up every hair on your head, Bob 'ud hop him. Over goes the cook-stove. Away rolls the hot coals on the floor. Down comes the stove-pipe and the frying-pans and the rest of the truck, whilst the old Judge in the corner hollered decisions, heart-broke because he was tied by the leg and could not get a claw into the dispute. [Illustration: Bob 'ud hop him.] "By the time we had 'em separated--Bob headed up in his barrel and Tom tied up in his sack--put the fire out, and fixed things generally, there wasn't a great deal left of that night's rest. "But children will be children. We swore awful, still we wouldn't have missed their company for a fair-sized farm. "And now comes in the first little twist of the Big Bend Ranch, proper--all these things I'm telling you were the eggs. Here's where the critter pipped. "'Twas November, and such a November as you don't get outside of Old Dakota, a regular mint-julep of a month, with a dash of summer, a sprig of spring, a touch of fall, and a sniff or two of winter to liven you up. If you'd formed a committee to furnish weather for a month, and they'd turned out a month like that, not even their best friends would have kicked. And here we'd been makin' hay, and makin' hay, the ranch people thanking Providence that prairie grass cures on the stem, while we cussed, for we were sick of the sight of hay. I got so the rattle of a mower give me hysterics. We were picked because we were steady and reliable, but one day we bunched the job. Says I, 'Here; we've cut grass for four solid months, includin' Sundays and legal holidays, although the Lord knows where they come in, for I haven't the least suspicion what day of the month it may be, but anyhow, let's knock off one round.' "So we did. I sat outside in the afternoon, while the other two boys and the rest of the family took a snooze. Here comes a man across the south flat a-horseback. "I watched him, much interested: first place, he was the first strange human animal we'd laid eye on for six weeks; next place, his style of riding attracted attention. I thought at the time he must have invented it, him being the kind of man that hated horses, and wanted to keep as far away from them as possible, yet forced by circumstances to climb upon their backs." [Illustration: His style of riding attracted attention.]