It was only about fifteen or twenty miles by the short cut, an’ this would get him back to regular meals in short order; so he left me his rope an’ set out. Horace helped me with the cow that night, an’ he proved purty able help. He was feelin’ fine, an’ the milk had filled him out wonderful. He said he hadn’t felt so rough ’n’ ready for twenty years; but Spider Kelley failed to arrive with my meal that night, and I went to bed feelin’ purty well disgusted. Tank had met him before noon that day, an’ he had gone in for a hoss; and they had decided that it would be a good stunt to give me some o’ my own treatment.
Next mornin’ I felt as empty as a balloon; so after Horace had enjoyed himself, I took a little o’ the same, myself; but I didn’t take it like he did. I held my mouth open an’ squirted it in, an’ it was mighty refreshin’.
“Huh,” sez Horace, “you’re mightily stuck up. The calf’s way is good enough for me.”
“I got a split lip,” I sez, half ashamed o’ myself.
They left us there three days to allow for the time it would have taken Tank to walk if it had been as far as we claimed it was; and then Tillte Dutch drove out the buckboard. He said ’at Spider an’ Tank had quit and gone into Boggs for a little recreation; but after I had eaten my first meal out o’ the grub he brought, I didn’t bear ’em any ill will. The joke was on me as much as it was on Horace; but I’d ’a’ gone through twice as much to test that theory, an’ I’d had the full worth o’ my bother. Horace was a new man: he was full o’ vim an’ snap, an’ he gave me credit for it an’ became mighty friendly an’ confidential.
He stood up in the buckboard an’ made a farewell speech to the cow which lasted ten minutes. He also apologized to the calf, an’ told him that when he got back East, he would raise his hat every time he passed a milk wagon. He sure felt in high spirits, and made up a ramblin’ sort of a song which lasted all the way back to the house. It had the handiest tune ever invented and he got a lot o’ fun out of it. It began:
“Oh we walked a thousand miles without eatin’ any food,
An’ then we met a cow an’ calf, an’ gee, but they looked good!
Her eyes like ancient Juno’s were so in-o-cent an’ mild,
We couldn’t bear to take her life, we only robbed her child.