he task.
Her brain seemed misted, and her food had been a source of keen pain to
her. Hence, after a few half-hearted orders, she had settled into her
broad chair behind the counter and there remained, brooding over her
maternal responsibilities.

She gave sharp answers to all the men who came up to ask after her
daughter, and to one who remarked on the girl's good looks, and demanded
an introduction, she said: "Get along! I'd as soon introduce her to a
goat. Now you fellers want to understand I'll kill the man that sets out
to fool with my girl, I tell you that!"

While yet Lee Virginia was wondering how to begin the day's work, some one
knocked on her door, and in answer to her invitation a woman stepped in--a
thin blond hag with a weak smile and watery blue eyes. "Is this little Lee
Virginy?" she asked.

The girl rose. "Yes."

"Well, howdy!" She extended her hand, and Lee took it. "My name's
Jackson--Mrs. Orlando Jackson. I knew yore pa and you before 'the war.'"

Lee Virginia dimly recalled such a family, and asked: "Where do you
live?"

"We hole up down here on a ranch about twenty miles--stayed with yore ma
last night--thought I'd jest nacherly look in and say howdy. Are ye back
fer to stay?"

"No, I don't think so. Will you sit down?"

Mrs. Jackson took a seat. "Come back to see how yore ma was, I reckon?
Found her pretty porely, didn't ye?" She lowered her voice. "I think she's
got cancer of the stummick--now that's my guess."

Virginia started. "What makes you think so?"

"Well, I knew a woman who went just that way. Had that same flabby, funny
look--and that same distress after eatin', I told her this mornin' she'd
better go up to Sulphur and see that new doctor. You see, yore ma has
always been a reckless kind of a critter--more like a man than a woman,
God knows--an' how she ever got a girl like you I don't fairly understand.
I reckon you must be what the breedin' men call 'a throw-back,' for yore
pa wa'n't much to brag of, 'ceptin' for looks--he certainly was
good-lookin'. He used to sober down when he got where you was; but
my--good God!--weren't they a pair to draw to? I've heard 'Lando tell
tales of yore ma's doin's that would 'fright ye. Not that she fooled with
men," she hastened to say. "Lord, no! For her the sun rose and set in Ed
Wetherford. She'd leave you any day, and go on the round-up with him. It
nigh about broke her up in business when Ed hit the far-away trail."

The girl percei