repast.

"Oh, a hearty meal will make him good-natured. That is the way it
acts with boys and men, and animals are not so very different."

"I guess you're right," said Joshua. "When I wanted to get a favor
out of dad, I always used to wait till the old man had got his belly
full. That made him kinder good-natured."

"I see you understand human nature, Mr. Bickford," said Joe.

"I guess I do," said Joshua complacently. "Great Jehoshaphat, who's
that?"

Joe raised his head and saw riding toward them a man who might have
sat for the photograph of a bandit without any alteration in his
countenance or apparel. He wore a red flannel shirt, pants of rough
cloth, a Mexican sombrero, had a bowie-knife stuck in his girdle, and
displayed a revolver rather ostentatiously. His hair, which he wore
long, was coarse and black, and he had a fierce mustache.

"Is he a robber?" asked Joshua uneasily.

"Even if he is," said Joe, "we are two to one. I dare say he's all
right, but keep your weapon ready."

Though Joe was but a boy and Bickford a full-grown man, from the
outset he had assumed the command of the party, and issued directions
which his older companion followed implicitly. The explanation is
that Joe had a mind of his own, and decided promptly what was best to