a moment an' then he called to George Hendricks
to rope the pinto; but when George hove in sight with his rope the
pinto took to his heels an' made for the horizon. "There goes a
ninety-dollar saddle," sez Jabez to me, "an' it's all your damned
nonsense."

"It ain't either," sez Barbie, as fierce as a wounded bear, "it's all
your damned nonsense. Happy has been trainin' that pony nights for my
birthday an'--"

"Barbara!" yells Jabez, "what do you mean by usin' such langwidge? I'll
line you out for this. You know mighty well--"

"Now you play accordin' to the rule," sez Barbie. "You was teachin' me
to play seven up last week an' you said that everybody had to play by
the same rule. I reckon that goes in cussin' too."

Well, they looked into each other's eyes for quite some while, an' then
Jabez sez: "Go into the house, Barbara, an' we'll both think it over,
an' as soon as we get time we'll settle it."

"All right," sez Barbie, an' she turns around an' marches to the house,
her little head held like a colonel's. Just before she reached the
house she turned an' calls: "You'll get the pinto for me, won't you,
Happy?" I sort o' half nodded my head, an' she went on into the house.

"Did you ever see such grit?" sez Cast Steel, "an' her only six. Kids
oughtn't to act so grown up at six, had they, Happy?"

"I reckon 'at kids are pretty much like colts an' puppies an' other
young things: give 'em dolls to play with an' they'll play like
children, but start 'em out on cards an' ponies, an' range 'em off with
nothin' but grown folks, an' they're bound to have ways like grown
folks'."

Jabez fidgeted around a while, an' then he sez, "Are you goin' to try
to catch the pinto?

"I am goin' to catch it," sez I, rollin' a cigarette.

He kind o' nervoused around a few minutes longer an' then he sez, "What
did you mean a while ago?"

"Jest whatever I said," sez I. "I don't know what you're a-referrin'
to, but if I said it, that's what I meant."

"When I asked you to rope the pinto you told me to git one o' my own
men to rope it; what does that mean?"

"It means that when a man tells me that hell can't hide me from his
wrath, I 'm free to consider myself foot loose. A man don't want to
slaughter none of his own hands, an' if it should be that any one feels
called upon to go after my hide, I don't want to feel that the time I
'm wastin' in takin' care o' that hide rightfully belongs to another
man who is payin' for it. Ther