to farming. There were plenty of boys at home. I wasn't
missed."

Thea wriggled down in the hot sand and rested her chin
on her arm. "Tell Johnny about the melons, Ray, please
do!"

Ray's solid, sunburned cheeks grew a shade redder, and
he looked reproachfully at Thea. "You're stuck on that
story, kid. You like to get the laugh on me, don't you?
That was the finishing split I had with my old man, John.
He had a claim along the creek, not far from Denver, and

raised a little garden stuff for market. One day he had a
load of melons and he decided to take 'em to town and sell
'em along the street, and he made me go along and drive
for him. Denver wasn't the queen city it is now, by any
means, but it seemed a terrible big place to me; and when
we got there, if he didn't make me drive right up Capitol
Hill! Pap got out and stopped at folkses houses to ask if
they didn't want to buy any melons, and I was to drive
along slow. The farther I went the madder I got, but I was
trying to look unconscious, when the end-gate came loose
and one of the melons fell out and squashed. Just then a
swell girl, all dressed up, comes out of one of the big houses
and calls out, `Hello, boy, you're losing your melons!'
Some dudes on the other side of the street took their hats
off to her and began to laugh. I couldn't stand it any