ore I ain't a hard man, and I'm willing to make it as easy as I can
for you, so I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll pay a fair price for such
improvements as your father made. They don't amount to much--"

"But if you should decide to commute the claim, instead of waiting
five years to prove up, it would be worth a good deal to you to be
able to swear that such and such things had stood on the place so
long, which you could not do if we took our improvements away; for we
have a right to remove whatever we have built, if we do not keep the
claim."

Mr. Horton's narrow eyes rested on me with anything but a friendly
expression. "You're posted quite a consid'able; ain't you, Miss
Smarty? Pity you didn't know jest a little mite more. Well; we won't
quarrel over a little thing like that. I'll pay for the improvements,
and you'll jest leave 'em where they are. This house, now, I'll take a
look at it; it don't amount to much, that's so, but such as 'tis, I'll
look at it."

"You are welcome to do so," Jessie assured him.

I think it came into her mind, as it certainly did into mine, that he
wished to ascertain if the house were not lacking in some one or more
of the essential equipments of a homesteader's claim. If he should
discover such a lack his task would be all the easier. I ran over a
hasty, furtive inventory on my fingers: "Cat, clock, table, chairs,
stove--"

The cat was lying comfortably outstretched on the window ledge, her
head resting on the open pages of the Bible, that we had both
neglected to replace. The clock ticked loudly from its place on the
mantel-piece; there was a fire in the stove, and, absorbed in staring,
Mr. Horton stumbled over one of the chairs. The result of his
inspection did not please him; he scowled at the cat, who resented his
glance by springing from the window and hissing spitefully at his legs
as she passed him on her way out. Her sudden spring drew our visitor's
attention to the book on which her head had been resting; the written
pages attracted his notice.

"What's that?" he demanded, going nearer, the better to examine them.

"That is our family Bible," Jessie replied, laying her hand upon it
reverently. "This"--she looked up at him with a kind of still, pale
defiance--"this is the Gordon family record! It has been kept in these
pages since the days of our great-great-grandfather, and"--she turned
the book so that Mr. Horton's eyes rested on the entry--"it may
interest you to know