shank end of it to stoke up for the rest. So I turned at the right-hand
fork and jogged slowly toward our own ranch.

Of course I had the rotten luck to find most of the boys still at the
water corral. When they saw who was the lone horseman approaching
through the dusk of the spring twilight, and got a good fair look at the
ensemble, they dropped everything and came over to see about it, headed
naturally by those mournful blights, Windy Bill and Wooden. In solemn
silence they examined my outfit, paying not the slightest attention to
me. At the end of a full minute they looked at each other.

"What do you think, Sam?" asked Windy.

"My opinion is not quite formed, suh," replied Wooden, who was a
Texican. "But my first examination inclines me to the belief that it is
a hoss."

"Yo're wrong, Sam," denied Windy, sadly; "yo're judgment is confused by
the fact that the critter carries a saddle. Look at the animile itself."

"I have done it," continued Sam Wooden; "at first glance I should agree
with you. Look carefully, Windy. Examine the details; never mind the
_toot enscramble_. It's got hoofs."

"So's a cow, a goat, a burro, a camel, a hippypottamus, and the devil,"
pointed out Windy.

"Of course I may be wrong," acknowledged Wooden. "On second examination
I probably am wrong. But if it ain't a hoss, then what is it? Do you
know?"