up warm, an' told her she could sleep
late, as we wasn't goin' to have an early breakfast. The big lids
closed down over her bright little eyes, an' purty soon she was
breathin' soft an' quiet, an' then I left her. I stopped in the doorway
an' looked back, an' my heart ached when I thought of her havin' to
wake up an' face it all. It ain't just killin' a man that's so bad,
it's the awful hole most of 'em makes in some innocent woman's heart.

When I got back to the side porch my breath liked to 'a' stopped, for
there was Jabez sittin' up an' complainin' most bitter because he had
an achin' in the back of his neck. I stopped in my tracks gappin' at
him, an' purty soon he noticed me an' sez, "Well, what are YOU starin'
at? Remember 'at I ain't no chicken heart, an' remember 'at what I hate
worse'n anything else is a liar. Now where is my child?"

"She's in bed and asleep, an' if you're sure you 're alive you've
lifted a ton off my heart. I thought you was dead," sez I.

"This whole pack of idiots thinks so yet," he yells, "an' they won't
let me get up. I got to see her, Happy, I got to touch her an' make
sure for myself that she's all right."

"Where was you hit, Jabez?" I sez.

"I was creased--I was creased the same as they crease a mustang" he
sez. "I was just touched in the back o' the neck an' it paralyzed me.
These blame pin-heads are crazy to strip me an' see if I ain't shot all
to pieces, but I won't stand for it." He tried to get up, but his legs
wouldn't work, an' he sank back again.

"You just set an' rest a bit, Jabez," I sez. "I want to see how old
Monody is."

The boys hadn't paid much attention to him, thinkin' him one o'
Brophy's gang, an' not carin' much whether or not he was comfortable,
'cause he was the most bloodthirsty lookin' of the whole bunch. "Are
you hurt bad, Monody" I said. His face lit up with a smile. "I don't
hurt at all, Happy, but I reckon I 'm done for--the' ain't no feelin'
in me from the waist down."

I got three o' the boys to help me, an' we put him on the shack door
an' packed him into the house an' put him into one o' the spare beds.
He was shot three times in the left shoulder, an' it wasn't till I
noticed it that I recalled my own fix. Monody's shoulder was all
shattered to smash, but still, it wasn't no reason for him to die, so I
begun to kid him about it. He grinned an' said he didn't intend to die
on purpose, but he reckoned it was his turn, an' he didn't intend to
s