you ain't liable to do at present; and Hank says you can have
this saddle for keeps. Hank used to ride it, but he out-growed
it and got one longer in the seat. When we start for Billings to
trail up them cattle, of course you'll get a string of your own
to ride."

"A string? I'm afraid I don't quite understand."

"Yuh don't savvy riding a string? A string, m'son, is ten or a
dozen saddle-horses that yuh ride turn about, and nobody else
has got any right to top one; every fellow has got his own
string, yuh see."

Thurston eyed his horse distrustfully. "I think," he ventured,
"one will be enough for me. I'll scarcely need a dozen." The
truth was that he thought Park was laughing at him.

Park slid sidewise in the saddle and proceeded to roll another
cigarette. "I'd be willing to bet that by fall you'll have a
good-sized string rode down to a whisper. You wait; wait till
it gets in your blood. Why, I'd die if you took me off the
range. Wait till yuh set out in the dark, on your horse, and
count the stars and watch the big dipper swing around towards
morning, and listen to the cattle breathing close by--sleeping
while you ride around 'em playing guardian angel over their
dreams. Wait till yuh get up at daybreak and are in the saddle
with the pink uh sunrise, and know you'll sleep fifteen or
twenty miles from there that night; and yuh lay down at night
with the smell of new grass in your nostrils where your bed had
bruised it.