Dick, desultorily bracing a leaning post of one of the corrals, saw him coming and grinned.

He glanced toward the bunk-house, where Ford still lingered, and the grin grew broader.

After that he went all around the corral with his hammer and bucket of nails, tightening poles and braces and, incidentally, keeping an eye upon the bunk-house; and while he worked, he whistled and smiled by turns.

Dick was in an unusually cheerful mood that day.
Mose came shuffling up behind him and stood with his stiff leg thrust forward and his hands rolled up in his apron.

Dick could see that he had something clasped tightly under the wrappings.
"Say, that he-hen--she laid twice in the same place!" Mose announced confidentially.