BILL ATTENDS THE PICNIC
THE a for so a thing. When Blake read Mrs. Shields’ to the they like for a vacation. Grins of were the on the Star C, and the overflow of took the of practical joking against Humble, life much anxiety. In Ford’s Station there was an air of expectancy, and Bill all of Saturday from until time to start in his stage and the horses, passed into indignation. After and arms Bill that the go as it was.
“Serves ’em right!” he to his enemy, the clerk, after he had a kick, a comb. “Let 353the go like they are! Let ’em how and common they are! They was any good for anything, anyhow, their off and kicking their best friend!”
“How about the time they out them Apaches?” asked the clerk, settling against the coach.
“You out!” Bill pugnaciously. “Who asked you for talk, hey? And away from that coach, you idiot, you’ll dirty it all up!”
“Sic ’em, Tige!” the pleasantly. “Chew ’em up!”
“What!” Bill, up the of water which near him. “Sic ’em, is it!” he cried, forward. “Chew ’em up, hey!” he continued, the of the at the clerk, who the vehicle and the door him as the water it. He out of the other door and was safely away Bill what had happened. Then the driver said when he saw the he had of the coach, upon which he had two hard hours in polishing.
“Suffering dogs!” he shouted, dancing on one and then on the other. “Now look what 354you’ve done! You’re a h–l of a feller, you are! After me the skin off’n my hands and my arms a-polishing it up! You good for nothing, half-breed! Wait till I a of you, you long pair of legs, you! Just wait! I’ll you, all right!”
The his from and in his laughter: “Serves you right! Sic ’em, Towser! Eat ’em up, Fido! Sic ’em, ’em!” he joyously, and ran for his life.
Bill returned to the coach and like to the he had and succeeded in a to the time-battered wood. Then he up and to the sheriff’s house, where he saw on the porch.
“Good morning, Mrs. Shields,” he said as he to the door. “Good morning, ladies.”
“Good William,” the sheriff’s wife as she to and blankets. “Will you mind those on the coach, William? We will soon be ready.”
“Why, not, ma’am,” he answered, up the two largest. “Jimminee!” he exulted. “These are heavy, all 355right, all right! Must be full of good things! To-day is where your Uncle Bill Halloway square for the dinner the company him out of. Wonder if there’s in this one?” he curiously. He the and a his face. “Must be six, yes, eight–mebby ten!” he as he it on the stage. “Hullo, bottles of some kind,” he as he up another basket. “Hear the little clink, eh? Must be coffee and tea, hey? Yes, it is. Good Lord, how I am–wish I had that this morning–how in did I know we was going to be so late? I’ll be the man at this picnic, all right!”
“Here are some blankets, William,” called Mrs. Shields. “Helen, would you mind him how to that box?–he’s sure to turn it if you don’t.”
“Next!” he cried, returning from the with the blankets. “I put them up on top, Mrs. Shields, is it all right? How do you do, Miss Helen, any more freight?”
“How do you do,” she replied. “This box is to go, please. Now, do be very not to 356turn it up, or it!” she warned. “And put it on the seat the coach where we can it.”
“Gee, what’s in it?” asked Bill, nearly from his curiosity. “Must be the of the feast, eh?”
“Three cakes,” she laughingly replied. “Chocolate, and lemon.”
“Um!” he said. “I’ll this one high up, it it.”
“Oh, do be careful!” she as he it up to his shoulder. “Oh!” she as it against the top of the door frame.
“Whoa! Back up!” Bill, the order. “Easy, boy–all right, off we go!”
“Grace, Mary,” Helen, “we are all to go!”
“Ain’t there any more boxes?” asked Bill from the coach.
“Come, girls,” Mrs. Shields as she into the coach. “Close the door after you, and lock it, dear.”
Bill helped the ladies into the coach, at the cake box and started toward the wheel when he was called back.
“Now, William,” Mrs. Shields, 357laughing. “We will not be by Apaches to-day, and this cake must not be shaken!”
“You won’t know you’re riding, ma’am, you won’t,” he her as he toward the wheel again.
“Wake up there, you!” he from the box. “Come on, Jerry, think you’re to the earth? Come on, Tom! Easy there, you jackrabbit! –haven’t you learned that you can’t this high!”
When they had at the A-Y the were into the ranch-house and the very for the feast. Bill took of his team and then the to the grove.
While the was being prepared there a series of blood-curdling off to the south where the of the Star C the air with smoke. As they came nearer something was noticed by Helen. It appeared to be a of by a and supported by two long, poles, one end of which rested on the ground, and the other to the saddle. While she Bill came up and she to him for light.
358“What have they got to that horse?” she asked him.
He looked and then smiled: “Why, it is a travois,” he said. “But what under the sun have they got on it? They must be their own grub!”
The and over the plain and soon came near for its to be out. A man and a dog were to it.
At this point Blake joined Helen and Bill, and as he did so he the travois.
“Thunder!” he cried, forward. “Somebody is hurt! What’s the matter, Silent?” he shouted.
“Matter?” asked Silent, in as the near. “There ain’t nothing the matter. Why?”
“What’s that doing with you, then?” Blake demanded.
Silent’s was as as that of an owl. “Travois?” he asked. Then his cleared: “Oh, yes–I near about it,” he added, apologetically. “You see, Humble he wanted his dog to come to the picnic, so we we’d 359let it come along. Bud and Jim was for it at the end of a rope and it over, but I said no. We ain’t got any to have all out and cut a-dragging dogs to picnics, and I said so, too. So we the and Lightning to it. When Humble saw what we had done he unpolite. He said as how he wasn’t going to have no dog of his’n twenty miles in a travois. Said that he’d make it home first, which was some after the dog to come along. He said that he’d go in a himself he’d let the be a of. Well, we had to him, and he got so that we just had to tie him with his dog. He pig-headed at times.”
“Take off the gag, Jim,” Silent, to the cow-puncher. “Let him now, we’ve arrived.”
Jim over and in Humble’s ear, the being that there were ladies about, and that all must be and not yelled. Then he the gag, and the ropes. Gales of met the angry and when he had to his feet, and 360he one quick at the and then, with and profanity, toward the as as would allow. The dog at its and then set off in of its master, arms time with his legs.
“That’s all the thanks we get,” Bud, “but then, he don’t know any anyhow.”
Blake laughed and his and outfit, and the longer he looked at them the more he laughed. They had paid their respects to the while Silent about the and now they many at the and spread out on the and at the which Bill was over. They had to the driver to them to give as to what they might in the way of edibles, but he had and to them, taking care, however, to their by looking at the box and the and his by taking steps for their benefit.
“Well, of the cayuses,” said Blake, “and square with Humble. Bring him 361with you or you don’t any pie. You’re such a that I can’t this time, but don’t a man in a again.”
“Did he come, or was he kidnapped?” Bud. “What we did once we can do again, and Humble will be on hand when the begins.”
Jim had been at Bill, manners were most aggravating. “You just wait, you heathen,” Jim. “You’re high with the grub, all right, but just you wait ’til we you alone!”
“Yah!” laughed the driver. “I can the best cow-wrastler that lived.”
“Bill to be this here festival,” Bud to Helen.
“Oh, he is our right-hand man,” she with enthusiasm. “We couldn’t possibly along without him, now. He has of the and cake.”
Bill’s expanded: “I’m of the and cake herd,” he proudly. “You can’t ahead of me.”
Bud looked at the driver and then his hand at the travois: “And you’ll 362travel in style, just like a foreman, too, when we a to you like we wants to.”
“You’ll no if you smart, little boy,” the driver. “Run along and play till is ready, and don’t dirty your hands and face.”
“Well, we’ve got memories,” Bud as he the way to the corrals, where he The Orphan.
“Hullo, Orphan!” he as he the hand. “Plumb to see you. How’s things?”
“Glad to see you, boys,” the temporary foreman, who was all smiles. “One at a time!” he laughed as they about him. “Make yourselves right at home–that smallest is for your cayuses. And you’ll of soap and water and by the bunk-house, and there’s a box of good cigars, a of tobacco, and a on the table inside. Help to anything you want, the place is all yours.”
“Gee, this is a good game, all right,” Bud laughed as he to put his in the corral. “The how to deal.”
363“Leave a cigar for me, Silent,” Jim as his friend toward the bunk-house. “Too many will make you sick.”
“Well, you’ve got a gall, all right!” Silent. “You let me yours out to you and keep away from the box, for I’m always of these goody-goody, it’s-for-your-own-good people.”
A look came to Jack Lawson’s and he to The Orphan: “Has Bill Howland got his yet?” he asked, at his friends.
“Why, I don’t know he has or not,” The Orphan. “But I don’t that he has been out of of the since he came. They’ve got him in a trance.”
“Guess I’ll take him one,” Jack, broadly. “He to smoke.”
“Shore enough, go ahead,” the of the A-Y as he toward the grove. Then he stopped, and with a look added: “If you want to see Humble, he just in the bunk-house.”
A of as the started pell-mell for the house. Silent entered it and his 364profanity his that their were well grounded. Neither Humble, cigars, tobacco were to be seen, and a search was instituted. Jack looked at a and saw Lightning as the dog from into it.
“Hey!” he cried. “He’s in the big corral–I just saw his dog go in, and it was its a whole lot. Come on, we’ll it and that a thing or two!”
No more were wasted, and in a very time were around the corral. Then there was a as most of the the at different points while two of them ran in through the gate. The thing they saw was the dog, and his was still as he followed, nose to the ground, a toad. He looked up at the and off suspiciously, looking for a way to escape.
“–– ––!” the punchers, who that don’t always deduct, and then they returned to the bunk-house to “slick up.” When satisfied about their they their way to the and 365the which their as they entered it almost them in their tracks.
Humble and Bill sat cross-legged on a blanket, which was with guns. The jug, tobacco and were by and a cake, while each of the a cigar in one hand while they took at the jug. A piece of rested in a plate at Humble’s side, while Bill’s a piece of cake.
“Hands up!” Humble, a gun. “Don’t you to the gallery! You right where you are!”
Bill’s from point to point experimentally, up and with accuracy.
The just the range of the and uneasily, not noticing that the driver had his by twice the length of its handle. Finally Jim and Docile ran toward the while their friends waited for their return, at the enemy with an I-told-you-so air.
Bill forward, the into his hand to the end of the and viciously. Joe Haines, who had a little 366careless, into the air and yelled, at his leg.
“Keep your distance, you!” the driver, trying to look ferocious. “Twenty is the dead-line, children.”
Jim and Docile returned and with them a dozen lariats, which in length from thirty to feet.
“Hey, you!” Humble in alarm. “That ain’t fair!”
Grim was the only reply as the each took his rope and the two. Then, suddenly, the air was full of and in less time than it takes to tell of it the pair were and trussed. Silent ran in and the away and then the prisoners, their after the as he took up the and cake, which he their eyes.
“I like a hog, all right, but you me too well!” Bud, at Silent’s pie.
“Gimme some of that,” Jim, trying for the cake. And when the had there were no of either or cake.
367“It’s the for you, Humble dear!” Charley Bailey. “And to the ranch, by the way of town!”
“And Bill will be pleased to the Limping Water on the bottom,” Jim. “One of us can drive the home!”
