will, too--"

Johnny went off into a pet daydream and was almost happy for a little
while. Some day the Rolling R boys would be telling with pride how they
used to know Johnny Jewel, the wonderful birdman that had his picture in
all the papers and was getting thousands of dollars for exhibition
flights. Tex, Aleck, Bud, Bill--Mary V, too, gol darn her!--would go
around bragging just because they used to know him! And right then he'd
sure play even for some of the insults they were handing him now.

"Mary V Selmer? Let's see--the name sounds familiar, somehow. O-oh! You
mean that little red-headed ranch girl from Arizona? Oh-h, yes! Well,
give her a free pass--but I mustn't be bothered personally with her. The
girl's all right, but no training, no manners. Hick stuff; no class, you
understand. But give her a good seat, where she can view the getaway."

Tex, Aleck, Bud, and Bill--little Curley was all right; Curley could have
a job as watchman at the hangar. But the rest of the bunch could goggle
at him from a distance and be darned to them. Old Sudden too. He'd be
kind of nice to old Sudden--nice in an offhand, indifferent kind of way.
But Mary V could get down on her _knees_, and he wouldn't be nice to her.
He should say not!

So dreamed Johnny Jewel, all the way to the mail box out by the main
road, and nearly all the way back again. But then his ears were assailed
with lugubrious singing:

"An' dlead the Great Bear ho-o-ome,
An' dlead the Great Bear hoo-me,
I'll brand each star with the Rollin' R,