"Include me in the joke," she suggested.
"Oh, I was just thinkin'," he explained inadequately.
"Does it always take you that way?"
"About these boys that drop in so frequent on business these
days. Funny how fond they're getting of the Lazy D. There was
that stock detective happened in yesterday to show how anxious he
was about your cows. Then the two Willow Creek riders that wanted
a job punching for y'u, not to mention mention the Shoshone miner
and the storekeeper from Gimlet Butte and Soapy Sothern and--"
"Still I don't quite see the joke."
"It ain't any joke with them. Serious business, ma'am."
"What happened to start you on this line?"
"The lad riding down the road on that piebald pinto. He come
twenty miles out of his way, plumb dressed for a wedding, all to
give me an invite to a dance at Fraser's. Y'u would call that
real thoughtful of him, I expect."
She gayly sparkled. "A real ranch dance--the kind you have been
telling me about. Are Ida and I invited?"
"Invited? Slim hinted at a lynching if I came without y'u."
She laughed softly, merry eyes flashing swiftly at him. "How
gallant you Westerners are, even though you do turn it into
burlesque.
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