' mites in a brandin'
corral, nor feed 'em oats an' hay, nor even ladle 'em swill for
supper, like hogs. Fer other things, I don't guess I could bile a bean
right without a lib'ry o' cook-books, so how I'm to make 'em elegant
pap for their suppers 'ud beat the Noo York p'lice force. An' as fer
fixin' their clothes, an' bathing 'em, why, it 'ud set me feelin' that
fulish you wouldn't know me from a patient in a bug-house. It makes me
real mad, folks is allus astin' me to get busy doin' things. I'm that
sick, the sight of a ha'f-washened kid 'ud turn my stummick to bile,
an' set me cacklin' like a hen with a brood o' ducklings she can't no
ways account fer. You'se fellers are a happy lot o' Jonahs to a man as
needs rest."

"You're sure doing the cacklin' now," observed Bill contemptuously.

"Maybe he's layin' eggs," murmured Toby vaguely.

The men were standing on the veranda, gathered round the bench on
which Sunny Oak was still resting his indolent body. And the subject
of their discourse was Scipio's two children. The father had ridden
off on his search for James, and the responsibility of his twins was
weighing heavily on those left behind.

"Kind o' handy ladlin' it out to folks," said Sunny, grinning lazily.
"But, with all your brightness, I don't guess any o' you could mother
them kiddies. No, it's jest 'send Sunny along to see to 'em.' That
bein' said, you'll git right back to your poker with a righteous
feelin' which makes it come good to rob each other all you know. Psha!
You ain't no better'n them lousy birds as lays eggs sizes too big, an'
blames 'em on to some moultin' sparrer that ain't got feathers 'nuff
to make it welcome at a scratchin' bee."

Sunny's flow was a little overwhelming, and perhaps there was just
enough truth in his remarks to make it unadvisable for the others to
measure wits with him. Anyway, he received no reply. Bill continued to
gaze out at Scipio's hut in a way that suggested great absorption,
while Toby had not yet lunched sufficiently off his tattered
forefinger. Sandy was the only one of the three apparently alive to
the true exigencies of the case, and Sunny addressed himself more
exclusively to him.

"Say," he went on, his good-humored eyes smiling cunningly up into the
widower's face, "I've heerd tell that you once did some pore
unsuspicious female the dirty trick of marryin' her. Mebbe you'll sure
hev' notions 'bout kiddies an' such things. Now, if Wild Bill had come
alon