ount Savage stands guard an' fights off the
roughest of the storms; while the soft winds from the south steal
gently up a little cut in the rocks an' seem to circle about him,
whisperin' secrets of countries far away. If the' 's a single bird in
Wyoming, you can find it hoppin' about his narrow bed or singin' in the
oak tree 'at stands above him, spreadin' out its branches like a priest
givin' the blessin'. Winter or summer, Monody's grave is the quietest,
peacefullest, purtiest spot 'at lies outdoors, as if the old Earth had
repented of the way it had treated him, and was tryin' to make it up to
him now.

Take it in winter when the' 's a clean sheet o' soft, white snow over
everything, an' I like to go out an' stand on another little knoll
about a half mile this side. The last speck of light in the valley
comes through a narrow cleft an' falls on Monody's grave. As the sun
sinks lower an' lower the crimson glory on the soft fleecy snow seems
to come up out of the grave an' climb the black shadow of the mountain,
like--but pshaw, I reckon it'd be a mighty tame sight to ol' Monody
himself.

I never speak of him, an' I never think of him, as anything but a man.
He lived like a man, God knows he died like a man; and on the little
stone at his head the' ain't nothin' carved except just--Monody, a Man.

CHAPTER SIX

THE RACE

It was mighty pleasant back at the Diamond Dot after things got settled
again. Barbie had become a curious little trick with a way of doin'
strange things in a sober old-fashioned manner like as if she was a
hundred years of age, but was tryin' to hide it.

She was more like Jabez too, which give me a heap of amusement, seein'
which one was goin' to win when they straddled a question. Barbie
wasn't sassy, not at all; she just didn't seem able to savvy that a few
small matters, like age an' parentage an' ownin' the ranch, gave Jabez
a sort of a majority vote, as you might say, on all questions. No,
Barbie couldn't seem to get callous to this, an' she fought out all
differences of opinion from the mere facts o' the case, an' I got to do
Jabez the justice of admittin' that he never retreated behind his
authority until after he'd been well licked in the open; an' unless it
was a mighty important question he took his lickin' like a man. Barbie
was game about it too, an' when she got the worst of a fair fight she
never put up a howl; but when she had won in the open it used to grind
her someth