The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-09-16
olo.od hook for the nouce.


 "I'm the boss envy extraordinary" said Overland by way of greeting. .Walt said something else, too, about bein' a potentiary, but reckon that was joke"
 Good morning! Don't get down! Glad to see you again!'
 But Overland was in the road, hat in hand and Yuma's bridle reins over one arm.
 "Mornin', Billy! Mornin', doctor! You run right up to the house. left the gate open"
 Then Overland rode back, following them. Later he reappeared, minus spurs and chaps, but still clad in the earb of the range rider He was as proud and happy as boy. He seemed to have dropped ten years from n1s shoulders, and he was strangely un' like his old boisterous self withaL
 The noon sun crept through the moon vine. Out on the wide veranda was the long table. They were hap py group at luncheon there. Even the taciturn Brand Williams had been per suaded to come. His native pictur- esuueness was rather effaced by a black, characteriess suit of store clothes"
 Walter Stone at the conclusion of the luncheon asked Overland to make speech. Nothing daunted, Overland rose briskly.
 "I expect you're lookin' for me to fall off the roof of the cannery into the tomato vat and make a large red splash. Not me. l. got somethin' to say. Now, the difference in droppin' ! a egg on the Kitchen floor and breakin l it calmlike in . saucer ain't only the muss on the floor; you save the egg. Just recent come nigh to losin' my whole basket. You all know who saved lem. Not namin' any names, the same person, by jest bein' herself and kind to everybody, put me wise to the fact that money and clothes ain't all that | goes to make a man. And. at the same l time, spealkin' kind of orthodoxical,
 money and clothes has, whole lot to 1 do with maxim man. I just got hep
 to that idea recent.
 "Speakin' of clothes leads me to re- mark that got new outfit up at the i bunk house. It's a automobilin' outfit. ] Billy says it's the icorrec' thing. He 1 helped me pick it out, which leads Bill ! ly into this here thing too. He said | to break the news gentle and not scare
 anybody to death and not get 'em to 1 thinkin' that somebody was hurt or
 anything like that, 50 I'm breakin' il | to you easy. Me an Billy is goin
 away. We're goin' in the Guzzuh-
 God save the mush,' as the pote says
 We are the Overland Red Towerist
 and Observation company. unlimited
 We are goin'
 Round the world and back again; Heel and toe in sun and rain"-
 as another pote says. Only we ride
 I ain't got nothin' to say about gettin
 married or happy days or any of that
 ordinary kind of stuff. l want to drink
 the health of my friends. I got SC
 many and such good ones that I das.
 sent to incriminate any particular one
 So say, lookin' at your faces, like
 roses and lilies and-and faces, say
 Here's to California, the darling of tn,
 west,
 A blessing on those living here And God help all the rest'' Overland sat down amid applause
 He located his tobacco and papers
 rolled cigarette with one hand and gazed across the hills. Glancing up
 he saw Louise looking at him. Ht smiled. "I was settin' on a crazy bronc' holdin' his head up so he couldn'
 go to buckin' outside little old adobe
 down in Yuma, Ariz., then. Did yol , [ ever drift away like that just iron , some little old trick to make yo,
 dreamw
 At a nod from Aunt Eleanor they al rose.
 Louise stepped from her end of th, table to where Overland stood gain, out across the hills. She touched hin
 lightly on the arm. He turned an. :, looked at her unseeingly. His eye
 were filled with the dreams of hi + youth, dreams that had not come tru
 rand yet He gazed down into he
 face. His expression changed. Hi
 eyes grew misty with happiness H g realized how many friends he ha, e and how loyal and excellent they were n And of all that he had gained hi ?, greatest treasure was his love fo d LouSe-for Louise Lacharme, the littl r Rose Girl of his dreams. That lov 2 lay buried deep in his rugged heart q She would never know of it. No on 2 should ever know-not even Collie n Louise in an ecstasy of affection an
 pity that she could not understand sue c denly flung her arms around Overland :. neck and kissed him full on the lips. More than he had ever dared t ' dream had come true.
 o THE END.