“The low-down villains!” grumbled Harry. “Abused the beautiful ear of my Jenny, did they? When I come along I’ll bring her an earring. Reckon a little bale of hay would please her most: an earring to represent a little bale of hay. And a cob of corn for the other ear, if she gets a hole through that too. Say,” he asked, “you didn’t see Sol Judy in those parts, did you?”
“No. Is Sol around there?”
“Yep. He’s a scout at Fort McPherson, helping guard the line.” That was good news. Sol Judy was another old friend. He dated away back to the Kansas ranch, where he’d appeared on his way from California. And he’d been with them in the Colorado gold diggin’s, and had driven stage and scouted along the Overland; and now here he was again, still doing his share of work while the country grew.
“Our whole family’s joining in with the U. P., looks like,” Harry added.
“All except my mother and George’s mother and Virgie.” Virgie was George Stanton’s sister. “And I bet you they’ll be on the job some way, before we get done with it.”
“You win,” Harry chuckled. “That’s their style—right up and coming. Well, let’s go to dinner. How’d you like fried ham and saleratus biscuits?”
“Fine.”
“Good. Yesterday I had saleratus biscuits and fried ham, today we’ll have fried ham and saleratus biscuits; tomorrow there’ll be just biscuits and ham. It’s a great system.”
They ate in the section house, at a board table covered with oilcloth. After dinner they swapped yarns and visited, while Harry busied himself dispatching or attending to the people who dropped in. A passenger train from the west came through, and a freight.
About three o’clock Harry took another message, and reported on it.