We are the
Overland Red Towerist and Observation Company, Unlimited. We are goin'
"'Round the world and back again;
Heel and toe in sun and rain'--
as another pote says. Only we ride. I ain't got nothin' to say about
gettin' married, or happy days, or any of that ordinary kind of stuff. I
want to drink the health of my friends. I got so many and such good ones
that I dassent to incriminate any particular one; so I say, lookin' at
your faces like roses and lilies and--and faces, I say,--
"'Here's to California, the darling of the West,
A blessin' on those livin' here--
And God help all the rest.'"
Overland sat down amid applause. He located his tobacco and papers,
rolled a cigarette with one hand, and gazed across the hills. Glancing
up, he saw Louise looking at him. He smiled. "I was settin' on a crazy
bronc' holdin' his head up so he couldn't go to buckin'--outside a
little old adobe down in Yuma, Arizona, then. Did you ever drift away
like that, just from some little old trick to make you dream?"
At a nod from Aunt Eleanor they all rose.
Louise stepped from her end of the table to where Overland stood gazing
out across the hills. She touched him lightly on the arm.
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