Several other ranch songs followed, but somehow the usual zest of their not unusual chorus exercise was lacking. She halted them for false harmony on "Poor Lonesome Cowboy" and when they began to twit Dick Murdock for his scowl and his refusal to sing, she gave them "The Dreary, Dreary Life" which generally marked the end of the chuck-room concert. This well known range lament, calculated to bring tears to the strongest eyes, ran:
"A cowboy's life is a dreary, dreary life,
Some say it's free from care;
Rounding up the cattle from morning till night
In the middle of the prairie so bare."
After complaining of "the wolves and owls with their terrifying howls" the cowboy of the song envies the farmer and the man who stays home with wife and child. And the last "yowl" gives all the glad part to the cook, thus:
"Half-past-four the noisy cook will roar,
'Hurrah, boys, she's breakin' day!'
Slowly we will rise and wipe our sleepy eyes
The sweet, dreamy night passed away."
Flame suited action to the word of the song, pushing back her chair and rising to a pair of tired feet. "It's the sweet dreamy for me, boys," she said. "Come on, dad."
Although Smiling Dick Murdock concentrated his gaze upon her, the girl spared him no look. Not so easily was he to get back into favor after such an attack as he had made upon Jack Childress, that different sort of man.
No word passed during the brief walk from the chuck-house to the owner's cabin. The father, having missed none of the wordless tilt between his daughter and the handsome range boss, was wondering what it was all about.
"Out roaming the range this afternoon, Firecracker, you missed a caller," said Gallegher when they had settled on either side of the reading lamp in the plain but comfortably-furnished living-room. "Serves you right."
"I knew I'd missed something while stabling my beastie," returned the girl. "But it will be news if you tell me what you did to our neighbor that he should leave the pride of his heart, Mr. Silver, stabled with us. I hope there wasn't any rough stuff?"
"Rough stuff? Over what?"