"What do you think of him?" he asked in a slow, curiously commanding way.
Bob-Cat squirmed uneasily.
"You is sure annoyin'," he said in an aggrieved manner, "askin' me to go on record so plumb sudden. I'm no mind-reader."
There was a pause, but the Ranger quietly waited.
"It's embarrassin'," said Bob-Cat, "to try an' trot out a verdic' on snap-jedgment. I don't know."
Rifle-Eye, quite unperturbed, looked at him steadily and inquiringly.
"You know what you think," he said.
"He's sure green," replied the cowboy, shrugging his shoulders in protest, "an' he ain't much more humble-minded than a hen that's jest laid an egg of unusooal size, but I reckon he's got the makin's."
"It's a good thing to be green," said the old Ranger thoughtfully, "nothin' grows much after it's dry, Bob-Cat. The heart's got to be green anyway. Ye git hard to bend an' easy to break when ye're gettin' old."
"Then it's a cinch you'll never get old," promptly responded the other.