THE TALE OF BRAZOS DICK
said he was sorry he didn't. Oh, he was very polite, though he cursed some at times. And I told him all I knew, and then he said he'd a raynch himself out in this kentry, somewhere up by the Staked Plain, and that he'd offen meant to kem out and see it, but that his raynches in the no'th of England took up his time some; and I asked him if the Queen's Court occupied him any, for I reckoned to know that lords hang around the Court; and he said he warn't stuck on the Court any, and preferred bein' on his own raynch. And, to cut the thing short, boys, he said, 'Dick, my boy, I like you, and ez you've little time to spare, you'd better take my man and see London, and in three days you can kem with me to my lordship's ranch in the no'th, and I'll show you some horses and cattle,' and I said I would. Boys, it was luck. For, what's more, he said my hotel warn't any good, and as I was to be with him he could give me a room in this Hayf Moon Street; and I said it was a dandy idea, and fetched my grip-sack away. So there I was all in with a duke, or a yearl, or a visscount,
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