ements without feelin' the cost, an' a
dozen other things that. I had allus supposed was simply a mixture o'
luck an' Providence; but it wasn't in my line to figger things out on
paper. Give me the actual cattle an' I could nurse 'em along through
sand-storm an' blizzard, an' round 'em up in the President's back yard;
but at that time they didn't signify much to me when they was corraled
up on a sheet of paper. When it cane to action I was as prepossessed as
a clerk at a pie counter; but I didn't have the slightest symptom of
what they call the legal mind.

The' wouldn't much 'a' come of it; but one day Barbie came out of her
daze an' walked into the office where I was sweatin' over some of
Dick's prognostications, stuck a pencil behind her ear, an' waded into
'em; an' from that on I took off my hat to a college edication. Dick
may have been on the queer all right, but he was smooth enough to hide
it. Anyhow, ol' man Judson's bank account was a heap plumper'n it was
when Dick had his first whack at it, an' Dick had drawn a mighty
stately salery himself. But he earned it, for the ranch was in strictly
modern order an' runnin' on a passenger schedule.

It allus gave me a hurtin' in the chest to see either Barbie or the ol'
man himself those days. The' was a set look in Barbie's eyes; cold an'
unflinchin' an' defiant. I once saw the same expression in the eyes of
a trapped mountain lion. The ol' man's face was all plowed up too. He
reminded me of an Injun up to Port Bridger. A Shoshone he was from the
Wind River country, an' he had the look of an eagle; but he got a holt
of some alcohol an' upset a kettle o' boilin' grease on himself. He
lived for eight days with part of his bones stickin' through, but never
givin' a groan; an' I ain't got the look of his face out o' my system
yet. Jabez reminded me of it a heap: an' he was just about as noisy
over it too. I never supposed that the Diamond Dot could get to lookin'
so much like a desert island to me. I got to feelin' like one who had
been sent up for life, an' I would sure have made a break for freedom
if it hadn't been for the little girl. I couldn't bear to leave her.

One of the saddest things I ever see in my whole life was the
difference between the way she an' Jabez acted an' the way they used
to. I've heard preachers beseech their victims to live in peace an'
harmony together, an' not to quarrel or complain; an' right at the time
it didn't sound so empty an' mockis