a hat, the wind rippling his shirt about his
brown neck and shoulders.

"Don't forget that you and Rudolph are
going hunting with me up on the Niobrara
next summer," I said. "Your father's agreed
to let you off after harvest."

He smiled. "I won't likely forget. I've
never had such a nice thing offered to me
before. I don't know what makes you so nice
to us boys," he added, blushing.

"Oh, yes you do!" I said, gathering up my
reins.

He made no answer to this, except to smile
at me with unabashed pleasure and affection
as I drove away.

My day in Black Hawk was disappointing.
Most of my old friends were dead or had
moved away. Strange children, who meant
nothing to me, were playing in the Harlings'
big yard when I passed; the mountain ash had
been cut down, and only a sprouting stump was
left of the tall Lombardy poplar that used to
guard the gate. I hurried on. The rest of the
morning I spent with Anton Jelinek, under a
shady cottonwood tree in the yard behind his
saloon. While I was having my mid-day din-

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p415 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p416w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p417

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