nt
an' anybody else."

"I own too to that," sez I; "but what have I got to do with it?"

"Well, you can sort of hint around until you find out what's on her
mind, an' if it ain't somethin' fit, you can tell her so; because if it
comes to a show down, she thinks I ought to tell her anything she wants
to know."

"Well, hadn't you?" sez I.

"Yes, sometime, I suppose--but hang it, it's mighty hard to answer some
of her questions, or to give reasons why I can't answer 'em."

"Have you asked her what's on her mind this time?" sez I.

He fidgeted around a while, an' then he sez, "Yes, I asked her."

"What did she say?" sez I.

"She looked me plumb in the eyes, an' said, 'Do you want me to ask you
what I want to find out?'"

"What did you say?" sez I.

"Why, I said, 'Yes, Barbara, if it is something you ought to know.'"

"Well?" I sez, after waitin' a bit.

"Why, she flared up," sez Jabez, "an' went on sarcastic about it bein'
strange to her why girls was so much different from other folks, an'
there bein' so many things 'at they wasn't fit to know; an' finally she
said to me point blank, 'Do you want me to ask you what I want to know,
an' if I do ask you will you answer?'"

"What did you say?" I sez.

"I didn't know what to say," sez Jabez. "She looked different from any
way she had ever looked before, and after a minute I sez, 'No, Barbara,
I don't think you had better ask me, an' I don't think you had better
think of it any more.' Don't you think I did right?"

"No," sez I, "you did not. You simply side-stepped; you wilted under
fire, an' she hates a coward as much as you do. Why didn't you face it
right then?"

"Happy," he sez, an' his voice wrung my heart, "the' 's things she'll
have to know sometime, but she ain't old enough to know 'em yet." He
stopped, an' his face grew hard as stone when he went on. "But the' 's
some things that she never can know, an' I don't want her to even learn
that there are such things. That's why you have to find out what's on
her mind."

"Now you know, Jabez, that I have my own ideas on what I have to do;
but you tell me what kind o' things there are that she mustn't ever
learn, an' maybe I'll see your way of it."

Jabez looked down at the ground, an' the sweat broke out on his
forehead before he answered me. When he did the' wasn't a trace of
friendliness in his tone. "You have done a heap for me, Happy, and if
there's anything in the money line that you think I owe yo