Kitty was looking unutterable things.

They did not know that Patches was suffering from a reaction caused by the discovery that he had never before met Professor Parkhill.
"You see, mister," he explained gravely, advancing again with Stranger following nervously, "this here fool horse ain't used to strangers, no how, 'specially them as don't look, as you might say, just natural like." He finished with a sheepish grin, as he grasped the visitor's soft little hand and pumped it up and down with virile energy.

Then, staring with bucolic wonder at the distinguished representative of the highest culture, he asked, "Be you an honest-to-God professor?
I've heard about such, but I ain't never seen one before." The little man replied hurriedly, but with timid pride, "Certainly, sir; yes, certainly." "You be!" exclaimed the cowboy, as though overcome by his nearness to such dignity.

"Excuse me askin', but if you don't mind, now--what be you professor of ?" The other answered with more courage, as though his soul found strength in the very word: "Aesthetics." The cowboy's jaw dropped, his mouth opened in gaping awe, and he looked from the professor to Phil and Kitty, as if silently appealing to them to verify this startling thing which he had heard.

"You don't say!" he murmured at last in innocent admiration.