"You better stick to it, because it will sure pan out that way.

You'll hate to admit, five years from now, that you once took me for a donkey.

Besides, you can't have my ears to pin to the frame; I'll need 'em to listen to all the nice things some _real_ girls will be saying to me when I've just made an exhibition flight." "Exhibition flight--of your imagination!" fleered Mary V, curling her lip at him.

"And I won't need your ears to prove you're a donkey, so don't worry about that." Johnny Jewel stood up, lifted his arms high above his head to stretch his healthy young muscles, pulled his face all askew in a yawn, rumpled his hair again and reached for his papers and tobacco.

He knew that Mary V never noticed or cared if a fellow smoked; she was too thoroughly range-bred for that affectation.
"Good golly! Things must sure be dull at the ranch, if you had to ride twenty miles on a day like this to pick a fight with me," he observed, leisurely singling one leaf out of his book of papers.