me, you want to be mighty sure it will hold
water. Above all things I hate a liar, a coward, an' a sneak. Now get
busy 'cause life is short an' time is fleetin'."

That was the way he used to talk, an' some used to set him down as a
tyrant, an' some had him guessed in as a rough old codger with a soft
heart,--everybody took a guess at him,--but the blood in the turnip was
that ol' Jabez Judson was purty tol'able sizey when you carne to fence
him in. Everybody called him Cast Steel Judson, an' you might work
through the langwidge five times without adding much to the
description. Hard he was an' stern an' no bend to him; but at the same
time you could count on him acting up to his nature. He wa'n't no
hypocrite, an' th''s a heap o' comfort jest in that. A feller ain't got
no kick comin' when a rattler lands on him; but if a wood dove was to
poison him, he'd have a fair right to be put out. The only child 'at
Cast Steel had was one daughter; but that don't indicate that paternity
was one long vacation for Jabez. Barbie--her full name was Barbara--was
the sweetest an' the gamest an' the most surpriseable creature a human
being ever met up with, an' ol' Jabez could 'a' got along handier with
seven sons than he did with that one girl. Oh, the eyes of her were
like the two stars over old Savage, snappin' an' twinklin' an'
sparklin' in the clear winter nights, or soft an' shy an' tender when
the hazy spring moon cuddles up to them. She wasn't afraid of anything
'at walks the face o' the earth, an' Jabez had a hard time gettin' used
to this--'cause he thought she ought to be afraid o' him.

Still, he fair worshipped her, an' if he'd been given full charge o'
the earth for jest one day, an' anything would 'a' pestered the girl
durin' that day, why the map-maker would sure have had a job on the day
follerin'; 'cause from his standpoint, that girl was what the sun shone
for an' the rain rained for an' the blossoms blossomed for.

We was allus havin' a lot o' Easterners string along during the summer,
an' they generally was easy to entice into makin' a little visit with
us. Some of 'em would spend their time crackin' stones an' makin' up
tales about their bein' speciments o' the Zelooic age or the Palazoric
age or some such a fool thing. They was mostly heathens, an' it didn't
do no good to spring the Bible on 'em--in fact after we got able to
read their signs we never contraried 'em at all, but just let 'em heave
out any tale t