90 CAMP-FIRES OF A NATURALIST. 



would hardly get started before someone would break 

 in, and then all would go at it again. 



" You remember when I left you, Professor. Well, 

 it was just eight o'clock in the morning, and at just 

 two o'clock in the afternoon I was at the ranch, 

 twenty-five miles down the Pecos. " 



Here Fly broke in : " That was no walking. In 

 California I walked from Elk Creek down to Gold 

 Gulch, forty-two miles, in just eight hours and 



Here someone else broke in, and the story of some 

 great walk had to be told by each one, and Beaty 

 was compelled to wait until the flood passed and 

 then started fresh again. 



" At the ranch I found my old partner, Everhart, 

 and he told me that he heard I was sick down to 

 Vegas. He sure sent a boy up to the ranch to look 

 after things until I could get back. The boy stayed 

 there about a week and then a big bear came around 

 the place and would not go away, although he shot 

 at it through the window. The boy was scared, and 

 dug a hole under the floor and buried everything in 

 the cabin in the hole. He took all the dirt down to 

 the river and' threw it in and smoothed the place over. 

 Sometimes he wore a pair of my old shoes and made 

 big tracks around the place. " 



" Well, I want to know !" 



" By the great wars !" 



" I was just goin' to say " 



"I thought you could have smelled it." 



"You couldn't smell anything but brimstone 

 around there when Beaty got there." 



" That boy knew what he was about. " 



