much longer you goin' to keep that child awake?"

"She's been asleep in my arms for some time," sez Melisse, lookin' down
at Barbie's face, which was nestled up close to hers. "I reckon I'll
put her to bed now." She got up an' carried Barbie to the door an' then
she turned an' sez in a low tone: "You're mighty proud o' being called
Cast Steel, you love to trample over people; but I want to tell you
somethin' to remember; I sha'n't never be separated from this child
again except by her own will. Next time I can't live around you I'll
take her with me. You've known me a long time"--an' she shut the door
without slammin' it.

"Oh, I don't reckon it's allus some one else's fault," I sez, after he
had got through cussin' about his luck.

"Am I a hard man to work for?" sez he.

"You ain't," sez I.

"When am I ever unjust?" sez he.

"When you go off halfcock," sez I.

"What is it allus about?" sez he.

I thought over everything before I answered. "Why, it's allus about the
child Barbie."

"I ain't Cast Steel about her; I'm spring steel where she's concerned,
an' you fellers ought to know the way spring steel works if any one
does."

"That's all right," sez I,--I was still smartin' a little,--"but the
deuce of the thing is that you go off at halfcock, an' then you allus
expect the other feller to pay the damage. It's goin' hard with you
some day, Jabez, if you don't watch closer."

"Oh, you can't understand it. If you only knew what lyin' an'
disobedience sometimes does, you wouldn't talk so calm about it,
neither. The' ain't nothin' I wouldn't do for Barbara--except see her
get started wrong. You're different from the rest, some way, an' she
thinks more of you than the others. That's one reason why I give you a
wider circle to range in, an' why I give you foreman's pay for odd-job
work--"

"Now if you think 'at I don't earn all you're payin' me," sez I--but he
broke in: "If I didn't think I wouldn't pay it," sez he.

"I can go down to the Lion Head any time I want an' get more'n you're
payin' me," sez I.

"I can pay you as much as any man in the West," sez he.

"You couldn't hire me at all if it wasn't for Barbie," sez I.

"An' I wouldn't hire you at all if it wasn't for her," he snaps. "You
can do the right thing at the right time better'n any other man I ever
had; but you're the contrariest man to work with on the job. You're
allus flyin' up, an' you'd talk back if your throat was cut."

"I'm free," se