Mrs.Moss beamed on every one from behind the big tea-pot like a mild full moon, while Bab and Betty kept interrupting one another in their eagerness to tell something new about Ben and how Sanch lost his tail.
"Now you let Mr.Brown talk a little; we all want to hear how he 'came alive,' as you call it," said Mrs.Moss, as they drew round the fire in the "settin'-room," leaving the tea-things to take care of themselves.
It was not a long story, but a very interesting one to this circle of listeners; all about the wild life on the plains trading for mustangs, the terrible kick from a vicious horse that nearly killed Ben, sen., the long months of unconsciousness in the California hospital, the slow recovery, the journey back, Mr.Smithers's tale of the boy's disappearance, and then the anxious trip to find out from Squire Allen where he now was.
"I asked the hospital folks to write and tell you as soon as I knew whether I was on my head or my heels, and they promised; but they didn't; so I came off the minute I could, and worked my way back, expecting to find you at the old place.

I was afraid you'd have worn out your welcome here and gone off again, for you are as fond of travelling as your father." "I wanted to sometimes, but the folks here were so dreadful good to me I couldn't," confessed Ben, secretly surprised to find that the prospect of going off with Daddy even cost him a pang of regret, for the boy had taken root in the friendly soil, and was no longer a wandering thistle-down, tossed about by every wind that blew.
"I know what I owe 'em, and you and I will work out that debt before we die, or our name isn't B.B.," said Mr.Brown, with an emphatic slap on his knee, which Ben imitated half unconsciously as he exclaimed heartily,-- "That's so!" adding, more quietly, "What are you going to do now?
Go back to Smithers and the old business ?" "Not likely, after the way he treated you, Sonny.

I've had it out with him, and he won't want to see me again in a hurry," answered Mr.Brown, with a sudden kindling of the eye that reminded Bab of Ben's face when he shook her after losing Sancho.
"There's more circuses than his in the world; but I'll have to limber out ever so much before I'm good for much in that line," said the boy, stretching his stout arms and legs with a curious mixture of satisfaction and regret.
"You've been living in clover and got fat, you rascal," and his father gave him a poke here and there, as Mr.Squeers did the plump Wackford, when displaying him as a specimen of the fine diet at Do-the-boys Hall.
"Don't believe I could put you up now if I tried, for I haven't got my strength back yet, and we are both out of practice.

It's just as well, for I've about made up my mind to quit the business and settle down somewhere for a spell, if I can get any thing to do," continued the rider, folding his arms and gazing thoughtfully into the fire.
"I shouldn't wonder a mite if you could right here, for Mr.Towne has a great boarding-stable over yonder, and he's always wanting men." Said Mrs.Moss, eagerly, for she dreaded to have Ben go, and no one could forbid it if his father chose to take him away.
"That sounds likely.

Thanky, ma'am.