"Do you think I invented that story that you should mock me? Don't you see the sun is up?"
"Well, is it my fault that the sun is up?"
The others began to laugh, while the overseer's wrath increased.
"Take care, you blackguard, better not attempt to trifle with me, for if I once lay hands on you, I'll mangle you like unbleached linen."
"I'll be there too, you bet!"
"Indeed you won't, rascal," exclaimed the overseer, who himself could not help laughing. "There! talk to him in German any of you who can!"
The manager of the stables thereupon thought he might have a talk with the herdsman in German.
"You're a fine strong fellow!" he said, "I wonder they didn't make an Hussar of you. Why did they not enlist you? What defect could they find?"
The cowboy made a wry grimace, for peasant lads do not much care for those sort of questions.
"I think they did not take me for a soldier," he answered, "because there are two holes in my nose."