Page:The purple pennant (IA purplepennant00barb).pdf/191

Rh alfalfa. The bronchs weren't so bad, if you excuse their looks. What they needed mostly was food. Trouble was, though, that everyone out there who needed a horse had one, and I saw that if I was to make anything on that investment I'd have to make my own market. Which I did."

"How did you do it?" asked Perry eagerly.

"Introduced the wholesome recreation of riding. Used to take a string of bronchs up to college in the afternoon and stand 'em outside the Hall. Then when anyone came along I'd ask him if he didn't want to hire a horse for two bits an hour. At first I just got laughed at. Then one or two fellows tried it for a lark, and after that it went fine. I gave riding lessons to some of the girls—Morgan is co-ed, you know—and the next year I had to buy me more horses. Paid that poor thing name of Cheeny in full before I'd been there six months. When I left I sold out to a man from Lincoln and did right well. Now you talk."

"Wh-what did you do next?" asked Fudge interestedly.

"Went down to Texas and got a job with a firm of engineers who were running a new railway down to the Gulf. I'd taken a course of civil engineering. Met up with a slick customer who looked like a down-east preacher and went shares with him