ony to prove 'at she was his daughter either. She had him skinned
on ridin' though; 'cause while he was able to set anything on four
feet, he allus showed 'at he had begun late in life, an' he sometimes
jerked the bit unintentional; while she--well, I reckon she must 'a'
been born on hoss-back, an' besides, I had give her all the pointers
the' was.

One mornin' about ten days after I'd come back, I heard 'em discussin'
purty heatedly out back of the corral; an' I just sauntered over to
harken to it. It wasn't a case of eavesdroppin', 'cause when them two
had any comments to make they didn't care a blue bean what the
prevailin' style in opinions happened to be, they nailed their own
personal jedgments on the wall an' then stuck around handy to back 'em
up. I was particular anxious to know what they was crossin' words over,
'cause I couldn't get it out o' my head but what my comin' back an'
findin' 'em peaceable betokened something.

Jabez was standin' with his feet wide apart, his hands on his hips, his
hat tilted over one ear, his chin stickin' out with the lips pursed up,
an' his eyes had a dogged look in 'em. Line by line an' feature by
feature, she shadowed him to the last item; an' neither one of 'em saw
a twinkle o' comicalness in it, neither.

"Do you know who you're talkin' to?" he yells just as I arrived. "I'm
your father!"

"What of it?" she snaps back. "It's too late to remedy that--I just got
to make the best of it. But do you know who you're talkin' to? I'm the
future owner of the Diamond Dot, an' I ain't a-layin' no plans to have
the lala-kadinks from the civilized parts o' this country come out an'
round up my langwidge, same as they gather Injun speciments. You may be
my father, but you can just bet your saddle that before I reach the end
o' my trail, a stranger won't be able to guess it from our talk."

Now the old man was mighty savin' with his cuss-words, a' he put out a
purty tol'able fair grade o' grammar; but the girl had an eye in her
head and an ear to listen with, an' she had been for a long time takin'
notice o' the side winks o' the Easterners. Some Easterners put on
their manners the same as their complexions, an' the open air is apt to
put cracks in 'em.

The of man looked at her a good long while, but she never blinked a
winker; an' he finally turned away an' said in a soft-like voice, "I
know, child, I ain't been able to fill the part full measure--but it
ain't 'cause I haven't tried