"Well," says my boss, kind of smiling crooked out of the end of his mouth, "we come East to get some of the Better Things." They looked then, both of 'em, over at the two young girls on the sofa. They was so busy talking they didn't know anybody was looking at 'em. When we was all quiet they both spoke out right at the same time. "I got mine at Madeleine's," Katherine was saying; and Bonnie Bell says: "We fry ours in butter." The Lord only knows what they'd been talking about; but it didn't make no difference. Well, anyways, we all had quite a fine time, setting there in our ranch room, with the smoky mantelpiece and the old tables and chairs, and the sofa covered with a hide, where the two girls was setting. By and by they all got up and said they had to go home. Old Man Kimberly he held out his hand to my boss, and they shook hands quite a while together, not saying very much. "Will you come over some evening?" he ast Old Man Wright. And he says: "Shore!" About then Katherine's ma was kissing Bonnie Bell some more--she seemed never to get tired of kissing Bonnie Bell. Then them two girls they walks off to the front door, their arms around each other. I seen 'em standing there under the light. By and by Katherine picks up Bonnie Bell's hand and looks it over, and there wasn't no rings on it. "Are you engaged yet, Bonnie?" she ast. Bonnie Bell kind of blushed at that. "No," says she. "Are you?" "No. Mommah says I'm too young," says she; "but then----" "Yes," says Bonnie Bell; "but then----" Old Man Wright he turns to me after they'd all went away. "Well, Curly," says he, thoughtful, "I reckon we're coming on." "Yes," says I; "but then----" XIII THEM AND THE RANGE LAW When they all went home us three set quite a while in our ranch room, looking at the fire. It wasn't winter yet, but sometimes we lit the fire in the fireplace. Old Man Wright he seemed to be thinking of something, or trying to. At last he says: "Sis, go get the fine-toothed comb and comb your pa's head--won't you, sis?" says he. "Can't your barber do that for you?" ast she. "He does; but no barber can really comb a alderman's head soothing," says he, "not like his own kid can. Now a alderman that's soothed proper might be induced to do almost anything, and combing him on his head is like scratching a pig along its back with a cob. You try it, kid; it might be perductive of a new car or something for you," says he. So then she gets the comb and begins for to comb his head some, and he goes on talking with me. Evident he had something on his mind; that was the way he'd got used to think when something hard come up. "Curly," says he to me after a while, "what would you say if we had a chance to buy in the Circle Arrow Ranch again?" "I'd say it was the finest thing in the world," says I. "Them grangers ain't got a chance on earth. It takes a long course for to learn how to understand a cow's mind," says I.