The Black Swans 



as an open book will let you in right. 

 Harry and Ray, his tall and typical 

 moving-picture mate, are all right. 

 They know their business just as the 

 ponies do, and that means that they 

 all "savey" well their own particular 

 jobs and multifarious responsibilities. 

 You cannot say as much for most of 

 the eastern tenderfeet who swarm 

 around the saddles every morning. 

 Most of them do not know just what 

 they do want in the equine line. Men 

 with "shot" nerves, men whose idea 

 is that heaven lies near where a 

 speckled beauty swims below the tip 

 of a jointed rod, women who are look- 

 ing for lost weight and women who are 

 willing to lose it; children, too, the 

 boy who buys a hunting knife and 

 "chaps" before he has been on the 

 ranch an hour, so he can look a cow- 

 boy bold, and the "kids" who are to 

 have their first lesson here perhaps on 

 "Sausage" or some other fat old 

 veteran of the band. 



[76] 



