Cow-Country

ng as your mother wished that you should have it. You've got the music in your head

tten them down on paper, and that there are those who would buy them and print copies to sell, with your name at the top of the

and in the saddle and all. You've been in tight places that would try the mettle of a man grown-I mind the time ye escaped Colorou's band, and we thought ye

I'll brand you a herd of she stock and let ye go your ways. No son of mine can take orders from his father after he's a man grown, and I'm not to the age where I

d your life. You've been a good lad-as lads go." He stopped there to rub his jaw thoughtfully, perhaps remembering certain incidents in Budd

f, for you've a sharp eye for stock-and you can go where ye will. Or I'll give ye ten thousand dollars and ye can go to Europe and make tunes if you're a min

how spread to his eyes, that were bent on the whirring rower. It was the look that had come into the face of the baby down on the Staked Plains when Ezra called and called after he

ngs up, all right. If you don't, make out your bill and I'll pay it when I can. There's no reason why you should give me anything I haven't earned, just because you're my father. You earn

folks to play?" Bob Birnie asked af

same as you've done." He looked up and grinned a little. "To the devil with y

that in a man. I got my start from my father and I'm not ashamed of it. A

d struck deep into the soul of him. "Then I'll

d," Bob Birnie predicted sharply, stung by the tone of young Bud. "That

to buy you out! I'll borrow Skate and Maverick, if you don't mind, till I get located somewhere." He paused while he lighted the cigare

Bob Birnie retorted, "and

you haven't already, and count the time I've worked for you. Since you've put me on a business basis, like raising a calf to shipping age, let's be businesslike about it. You are good

hered his beard into a handful and held it while he stared after him. It had been no part of his plan to set his

were over. He had taken life as it was presented to him week by week, month by month. He had fulfilled his mother's hopes and had learned to make music. He had lived up to his father's unspoken standards of a cowman. He had made a "Hand" ever since his legs were long enough to reach the stirrups of a saddle. There was not a better rider, not a better roper on the range than Bud Bi

urrents, has been pecked out of the nest. No doubt the young eagle resents his unexpected banishment, although in time he would have felt within himself the urge to go. Leave Bud alone, and soon or late he would have gone-perhaps with compun

and went off to the bunkhouse to eat supper with the boys instead of sitting down to the table where his mother ha

s very tender with her. But she could not budge him from his determination to go and make his way without a Birnie dollar to

ther's Scotch-but he isn't a darned bit more Scotch than I am, mother. Putting it all in dollars and cents, I think I've earned more than I cost him. In the winters, I know I earned my board doing chores and riding line. Many a little bunch of stock I've saved for him by getting out in the foothills and driving them down below heavy s

we you will never be paid, but I'm going to make you glad I know there's a debt. I believe there's a God, because I know there must have been one to make you! And no matter how far away I may drift in miles, your Buddy is going to be he

ut out for her," He laughed unsteadily. "She'll have t

should go-but don't you forget your music, Buddy-and be a good boy, and remember,

stubborn son dickering politely over the net earnings of the son from the time when he was old enough to leave his mother's lap and climb into a saddle to ride with his father. Three horses and his personal belonging

by his father's riders. You should have seen the sidelong glances among the boys when they learned that Bud, just ho

d's guitar and a mandolin in their cases he tied securely on top of the pack. Smoky, the second horse, a deep-chested "mouse" with a face almost human in its expression, he saddle

a tall puncher murmured to another. "Wonder where h

ept that somehow he felt that he was going to head north. Why north, he could not have explained, since cow-country lay

good-by, and to send a farewell message to Dulcie, who had been married a year and lived

you left Texas behind. You couldn't tell where you folks would wind up. Neither can I. My trail herd is kinda small, right now; a l

in his manner and hurried out, his big-rowelled spurs burring on the porch just twice before he stepped off o

k. Ezra, pottering around the tool shed, ambled up with the eyes of a dog that has been sent back home by his master. "Ah shoah do wish yo' all good fawtune an'

good, this time? He had believed that no one knew of it save himself, his father and his mother; yet everyone else behaved as if they never expected to see

stride a horse more than he has walked on his own feet. He put up his hand, gloved for riding,

e, lad, but when ye own yourself a fool to take this way of making your fortune, ten thousa

thousand till it's called for, you'll be drawing interest a long time

to the pass where he had watched the Utes dancing the war dance one night that he remembered well. If he winced a little at the familiar landmarks he passed, he still held