The Happy Family

eed here. The grass, thick and green in the sheltered places, was fast painting all the higher ridges and foot-hill slopes, and with the green grass came the lank-bodied,

for several years he had been content to hire a couple of men to represent him in the roundups of the larger outfits-men whom he could trust to

e the days when he had been a cowpuncher, had the wide spaces called to him so alluringly; never had his mind dwelt so insistently upon the approach of spring roundup. Perhaps it was because he heard so much range

, but with the coming of green grass, and with the reaction that followed the completion of the picture that in the making had filled all their thoughts, they were not so content. To the inevitable reaction had been added a n

limit he had given himself for the trip. But knowing that Luck was not to be blamed for his long absence did not lessen their im

any agreement with the Great Western. Maybe they wouldn't offer him enough money, or leave him enough freedom in his work; maybe he would "fly back on the rope" at the last minute, and come back with nothing accomplished. Applehead, with the experience gleaned from the stress of seeing luck produce one feature picture without any financial backing whatever and without half enough capital, was not looking

e gate when he rode up to the corral. Andy Green, having been left in nomina

," Pink answered glumly. "That's more than he'll let any of us fe

ound here waitin' on Luck and lettin' my own work slide. Chavez boys, they started out yest'day, I heard in town. And if I don't git right out close onto their heels, I'll likely find myself with a purty light crop uh ca

emembered why they were being kept so clo

cture?" he asked, discouraging the idea reluctantly. Pink had himself been listening

ing, or will need you boys immediate. The chances is we could go and git back agin before Luck shows up. And if we don't," he argued speciously, "he can't blame nobody for not wantin' to set around on their haunches all spring w

on arguing the case while he unsaddled his horse. By the time he turned the animal loose he had thought of two or three other reasons why he should take the bo

n off his horse. "Annie? No; ain't seen anything of her. Shunky's be

the two of 'em together and they don't set good with me, now I'm tellin' yuh! If I was to say what I think, I'd say yuh can't never trust an Injun-and shiny hair and eyes and slim build don't make 'em no trustier. They's something scaley goin' on around here, and I'd gamble on it. And

l. "You've got it in for her 'cause her dog don't like your cat.

p a pile uh cussedness-to a feller under forty. You're boss here, Andy. When she comes back, you ask 'er where she's been, and see if you kin git a straight answer. She'll lie to yu

, had taken calm and unheralded possession of the ranch. Applehead did not resent the invasion; on the contrary, he welcomed it as a pleasant change in his monotonous existence. What he did resent was the coming, first, of the little black dog that was no

the little black dog, which she called Shunka Chistala in what Applehead considered a brazen flaunting of her Indian blood and language, Between the mistress of Shunka Chistala and the master of the cat there could never be anything more cordial than an armed truce. She had championed that ornery cur i

lehead there lurked a grudge that found all the more room to grow because of the natural bigness and generosity of his nature. It irked him to see he

had been tacitly set aside for her use, and rode off into the mesa without a word of explanation or excuse. Applehead reminded the boys that she had not acted like that when luck was home. She had s

quiet when he met her face to face. You couldn't tell about these squaws. Even luck, who knew Indians better than most-and was, in a heathenish tribal way, the adopted son of Old Chief Big Turkey, and therefore Annie's brother by adoption-even Luck maintained t

gone away and left the hardest part of the ironing undone. Luck had told Annie to help Rosemary with th

, for instance, that girl spent a whole HOUR brushing her hair and braiding it. And I do believe she GREASES it to make it shine the way it does! And the powder she piles on her face-just to ride out on the mesa!" Rosemary Green was naturally sweet-tempered and exceedingly charitable in her j

soles. The tongue was cracked, too; that had been done last winter when Luck was producing The Phantom Herd and had sent old Dave Wiswell down a rocky hillside with half-broken bronks harnessed to the wagon, in a particularly dramatic scene. Applehead went grumblingly in search of some

e dark after a high wind. Until now he had not observed its unwonted absence from the yard. For a long while he had not needed any wire to mend

that way. The wash was half filled with tumble-weed, so that Applehead was forced to get down into it and kick the weeds aside to

ead quite unexpectedly. She stopped and eyed him aslant from under her level, finely marked brows, and her eyes lightened with relief when she saw that Applehead looked more start

of the horse which jumped sidewise. "Never seen such a maniac for puttin' things where a feller can't find 'em, as what Luck

sical contralto voice which always irritated Applehead with its very melody. "I think plenty wire all fo

itself. "Well, this here danged place ain't no studio! It's a ranch, and it b'longs to ME, Nip Furrman. And any balin' wire on this ranch is my balin' wire, and

sometimes resembled. Shunka Chistala (which is Sioux for Little Dog) came bounding over the low ridge that hid the ranch buildings from sight, and wagged himself dislocatingly up to her. Annie-Many-Ponies frowned at his approach until she s

y unsubmissive in her bearing. Her big eyes were frankly hostile; her half smile was, in the opinion of Applehead, almost as frank

ke he'd been runnin' cattle; I ain't goin' to stand for havin' my horses ran to death, now I'm tellin' yuh! Fer a squaw, I must say you're gittin' too

thout looking in the least abashed, held her peace and kept that little i

e attempted to browbeat a woman, and her unsubmis

" She turned her horse and rode comp

plain speakin' done on some subjects when he comes back, and given' squaws a free rein and lettin' 'em ride rough-shod over everybody and everything is one of

les of wire folded neatly and with the outer end wound twice around to keep each bundle separate from the others. Applehead snorted at what he chose to consider a finicky streak in his secret idol, Luck Lindsay; but he took two of the li