rt of a calf college, you know; an' she had to train
there a solid year before they had the nerve to turn her loose on a
full-grown university. But she had a head on her, Barbie had; an' when
she got squared away, she made 'em all get down an' scratch. They do
say that she put more life an' vim in that institution than anybody
what had ever give it a work-out before.

Ol' Cast Steel went down twice the first winter, an' never let her know
'at he was in the neighborhood, for fear it would make her think 'at he
was pinin' for her. He just went down there an' bought some store
clothes an' prowled around waitin' for the chance to see her at a
distance--never even lined out the professors to see if they were doin'
their duty, nor mixed in the game the slightest bit. Talk about bein'
game? I reckon that puts a shadow on anything ever that man had to face.

She used to come back every summer, bringin' a lot of chums an' all
kinds o' pets with her. She was just daffy over any kind of a wild
animal from an Injun papoose to a white mouse; an' when she'd go back
in the fall, Jabez had his hands full with parrots an' alligators an'
butterfly coons an' sech--to say nothin' of a lot of potted flowers
what was mighty notionable in their tastes.

I was so busy tendin' to this branch o' the outfit that about all the
ridin' I did was for exercise--yes, an' for company, 'cause it allus
seemed as if she was along when I'd be out on the range. Then, again, I
allus felt a kind of drawin', myself, to the silent people, who think
an' wish an' feel, just the same as we do, but aren't able to handle
our langwidge. I got so I could purt' nigh tell what an animal had on
his mind, just from tendin' to her speciments.

She had one speciment which was a possom, an' the blame thing bit me
eight times one winter, me tryin' to give it baths--an' then she wrote
back home that the doggone critter didn't need'em nohow. She purt'nigh
got expended for takin' a rattlesnake back to the university an'
keepin' it hid in her room; an' after I'd had a deuce of a time
catchin' 'em, they made her send a bob-cat an' a mountain lion to some
kind of a garden--wouldn't let her keep 'em at all. The professors
allus was a sore trial to her, but once she began a thing she allus
fought it through, so she put up with 'em the best way she could.

She used to tell us that bein' housed up like to 'a' drove her crazy at
first, an' they was so tarnation fussy that she felt li