come out after that dip into the old Missouri?" he asked, abruptly.
"You didn't take cold, riding in those wet clothes, I hope?"

"I? No, I was all right. I stopped at that sheep camp and borrowed
some dry clothes." Chip was very uncomfortable. He wished Blake
wouldn't keep bringing up that affair, which was four years old and
quite trivial, in his opinion. It was a good thing Dunk pulled out
when he saw he'd got the worst of it, or there'd have been trouble,
most likely. And Blake--

The senator went on, addressing the others.

"Do you know what this young fellow did, four years ago this last spring?
I tried to cross the river near my place in a little boat, while the
water was high. Bennett, here, came along and swore that a man with
no more sense than I had ought to drown--which was very true, I admit.
I had just got out a nice little distance for drowning properly, when
a tree came bobbing along and upset my boat, and Kid Bennett, as we
called him then, rode in as far as he could--which was a great deal
further than was safe for him--and roped me, just as he would have roped
a yearling. Ha! ha! I can see him yet, scowling at me and whirling the
loop over his head ready to throw. A picture of THAT, now! When he had
dragged me to the bank he used some rather strong language--a cowboy does
hate to wet his rope--and rode off before I had a chance to thank him.
This is the first time I've seen him since then."

Chip got very red.

"I was young and foolish, those days, and you weren't a senator," he
repeated, apologetically.