' Jabez had just
about learned how to take each other, an' we didn't stretch our harness
to the snappin' point. Bill Andrews had finally got tol'able well
acquainted with me also, an' was able to savvy that while peace was my
one great desire, the' was some prices that I wouldn't pay for it.

We was all het up when the graduation day finally came, an' we didn't
do a lick of work on the ranch; just gathered around the ranch
buildin's, polishin' up her harness an' hosses, an' talkin' about her
in hushed voices. She had won honors an' medals an' one thing or
another until I reckon we felt purty much as Mrs. Washington did when
she was cleanin' house to welcome the father of his country after he
had showed England where to reset the boundery stakes.

Barbie had wrote us that she was goin' to cut out a string of
invitations as long as your arm and pike right out for home as soon as
she had finished her part of the program, an' we weren't able to do a
tap until she arrived. At first I was minded to drive down after her,
an' then I decided that it would be better for me to stay at home an'
line up the boys in some sort of style to receive her. Spider Kelley
went after her and as soon as they hove in sight I had all the punchers
charge down an' shoot their guns off in the air. They was wearin' their
gaudiest raiment an' shoutin' their heads off, an' she owned up herself
that it topped anything she ever saw in the East. She stood up in the
buckboard an' took off her hat an' swung it about her head and shouted,
"Boys, you're just bully--every one of you!" an' say, the' wasn't a
puncher on the Diamond Dot that wouldn't have given up his hide to make
her a pair o' ridin' gloves. Jabez had waited back at the ranch house
an' he was tremblin' when we left him to ride down an' meet her.

Here she was, comin' back for the last time with all the learnin' of
the earth packed away in her head, an' niched up with more degrees than
a thermometer; but it hadn't changed her heart, not one grain; an' when
she saw the home buildin's with ol' Mount Savage sittin' up on his
throne an' all the little peaks bowin' before him, like pages to a
king, she jes' threw out her arms as though she would take in the whole
outfit in one big hug, an' her eyes filled up with tears as she sez,
"Oh, Dad. I love it! I love every inch of it, every line of it, every
shade of it; an' I've hungered an' thirsted for it all these years--an'
for you, Dad, for you most o