nd
old Hagar are scrappin' over Good Injun again," and told with glee the
tale of his misdeeds as recounted by the squaw.

Phoebe in her earnestness forgot to keep within the limitations of their
dialect.

"Grant's a good boy, and a smart boy. There isn't a better-hearted
fellow in the country, if I have got five boys of my own. You think
I like him better than I like Wally, is all ails you, Hagar. You're
jealous of Grant, and you always have been, ever since his father
left him with me. I hope my heart's big enough to hold them all." She
remembered then that they could not understand half she was saying, and
appealed to Viney. Viney liked Grant.

"Viney, you tell me. Grant no come Hartley, no drunk, no yell, no
catchum you dog, no ride in Hagar's wikiup? You tell me, Viney."

Viney and Lucy bobbed their heads rapidly up and down. Viney, with a
sidelong glance at Hagar, spoke softly.

"Good Injun Grant, mebbyso home Hartley," she admitted reluctantly, as
if she would have been pleased to prove Hagar a liar in all things.
"Me thinkum no drunk. Mebbyso ketchum dog--dog kay bueno, mebbyso me
killing. Good Injun Grant no heap yell, no shoot all time--mebbyso no
drunk. No breakum wikiup. Horse all time kay bueno, Hagar--"

"Shont-isham!" (big lie) Hagar interrupted shrilly then, and Viney
relapsed into silence, her thin face growing sullen under the upbraiding
she received in her native tongue. Phoebe, looking at her attentively,
despaired of getting any nearer the truth from any of them.

There was a sudden check to Hagar's shrewish clamor. The squaws
stiffened to immobility and listened stolidly, their eyes alone
betraying the curiosity they felt. Off somewhere at the head of the tiny
pond, hidden away in the jungle of green, a voice was singing; a girl's
voice, and a strange voice--for the squaws knew well the few women
voices along the Snake.

"That my girl," Phoebe explained, stopping the soft pat--pat of her
butter-ladle.

"Where ketchum yo' girl?" Hagar forgot her petulance, and became curious
as any white woman.

"Me ketchum 'way off, where sun come up. In time me have heap
boys--mebbyso want girl all time. My mother's sister's boy have one
girl, 'way off where sun come up. My mother's sister's boy die, his
wife all same die, that girl mebbyso heap sad; no got father, no got
mother--all time got nobody. Kay bueno. That girl send one letter, say
all time got nobody. Me want one girl. Me send one letter, t