Page:Ritchie - Trails to Two Moons.djvu/85

 "Hum-hum!" Andy's head wagged dolorously. Woolly Annie's ham and eggs had arrived, but there was no knife-and-fork clatter from her table. The air of the two cowmen was absolutely detached and isolated. They might have been miles from the nearest listener. Timberline sighed gustily.

"Yes, sir, I never heard of a man who got rid by hard luck so hard as this here Elk Waters. Seemed like the devil just marked him for his child. Le 's see what else. Oh, yes, after his wife got burned up in Elk's little old soddy when the baby pulled the lamp over on hisself, Elk he got plumb meloncholy an' he finally took to herdin' sheep."

Bang! went a coffee cup into its saucer at the adjacent table.

"He was low in his mind," Andy volunteered. Timberline droned on:

"His sheep et up most of the range over in the Basin and then they took to browsin' down people's woodpiles and eatin' the geraniums the womenfolks nussed tenderly in their window boxes, an' Elk begins to be afraid he 's gettin' the blats besides fallin' hair and stone in the kidneys. Poor ole Elk don't mind the fallin' hair an' stone in the kidneys nigh so