sprunted up, and sez I--

"They are a-guardin' her to keep men from stealin' her, that is what
they are for. And," sez I, "it would be a good thing for lots of wimmen,
who have got lots of silver, if it hain't in their bodies, if they had a
guard a-walkin' round 'em with rifles to keep off maurauders."

Why, there wuzn't nothin' brung up that he believed in, or that he
didn't act morbid over.

Why, I believe his Ma--good, decent-lookin' widder with false hair and a
swelled neck, but well-to-do--wuz ashamed of him.

Right acrost from me to the table sot a fur different creeter. It wuz a
man in the prime of life, and wisdom, and culture, who _did_ believe in
things. You could tell that by the first look in his
face--handsome--sincere--ardent. With light brown hair, tossed kinder
careless back from a broad white forward--deep blue, impetuous-lookin'
eyes, but restrained by sense from goin' too fur. A silky mustache the
same color of his hair, and both with a considerable number of white
threads a-shinin' in 'em, jest enough so's you could tell that old Time
hadn't forgot him as he went up and down the earth with his hour-glass
under his arm, and his scythe over his shoulder.

He had a tall, noble figger, always dressed jest right, so's you would
never think of his clothes, but always remember him simply as bein' a
gentleman, helpful, courteous, full of good-nature and good-natured wit
and fun. But yet with a sort of a sad look underlyin' the fun, some as
deep waters look under the frothy sparkle on top, as if they had secrets
they might tell if they wuz a mind to--secrets of dark places down, fur
down, where the sun doesn't shine; secrets of joy and happiness, and
hope that had gone down, and wuz carried under the depths--under the
depths that we hadn't no lines to fathom.

No, if there wuz any secrets of sadness underlyin' the frank openness
and pleasantness of them clear blue eyes, we hadn't none of us no way of
tellin'.

We hadn't no ways of peerin' down under the clear blue depths, any
further than he wuz willin' to let us.

All we knew wuz, that though he looked happy and looked good-natured,
back of it all, a-peerin' out sometimes when you didn't look for it, wuz
a sunthin' that looked like the shadder cast from a hoverin'
lonesomeness, and sorrow, and regret.

But he wuz a good-lookin' feller, there hain't a doubt of that, and good
actin' and smart.

He wuz a bacheldor, and we could all see plain that M