So I only contracted for a couple uh thousand to be laid down in Billings somewhere between the first and the tenth of June, at twenty-one dollars a head.

It was the best I could do this year--but next winter I can go down earlier, before the other buyers beat me to it, and do a lot better.

Don't yuh worry, Dilly; it ain't serious." On the contrary, Dill looked relieved, and Billy could not help noticing it.

His own face clouded a little.

Perhaps Dill had lost his money, or the bulk of it, and they couldn't do all the things they had meant to do, after all; how else, thought Billy uneasily, could he look like that over what should ordinarily be something of a disappointment?
He remembered that Dill, after the workings of the cattle business from the very beginning had been painstakingly explained to him just before Billy started south, had been anxious to get at least four thousand head of young stock on the range that spring.