e the spider was at home,"
interrupted Gid. "Them critters has wonderful skill in tactics. I'm
figurin' as that hour wasn't a whole lot wasted, Kiddie."

"It was wasted in selfish enjoyment, selfish gratification," Kiddie
insisted.

"Git!" exclaimed Gideon. "You dunno what selfishness means, Kiddie,
an' you couldn't be selfish if you tried. You's allus doin' suthin'
unselfish. Here's you comin' back to this yer camp an' the Sweetwater
district, an' right straight away you starts helpin' other folks,
pertectin' their homes from hostile Injuns, makin' their lives smoother
an' safer. Is it selfish ter do what you've already done? What about
your takin' Jim Thurston's place in th' Express, riskin' yer life, an'
precious near losin' it? Was that a act of selfishness?"

"It was my fault that Jim was hurt. I couldn't do otherwise than take
his place."

"You wouldn't ha' done it if you'd bin selfish. You'd ha' let somebody
else carry on the job," argued Gideon. "You's allus thinkin' of
others; doin' 'em good turns, givin' 'em pleasure. You've given me a
gold timepiece, you've given Isa a hoss, you've given us new guns all
round. Thar's not a housewife along the trail as hasn't gotten suthin'
as you brought her from England--cloth for a frock, trimmin' fer a hat,
a box of scented soap, a machine fer mincin' meat. An' the
children--the boys an' gels--what about them, eh? You brought 'em toys
an' dolls an' pictur' books, whips, boxes of paints, needlecases with
scissors an' thimble all complete. You've filled their little hearts
with a joy they never knowed afore. Selfish! Great snakes!"

"Tea's ready," announced Rube Carter, breaking in upon the
conversation. "I've opened a new tin o' peaches, and thar's cream."

In spite of Kiddie's efforts to be homely and unassuming, Gideon
Birkenshaw was not always entirely at his ease in his presence. The
old man recognized that his own upbringing and education had been sadly
deficient and that his roughness of speech and manners became painfully
obvious in comparison with Kiddie's unvarying courtesy and refinement.

"Kiddie," he said now, as they sat at tea, "thar's a many things in
you, I notice, as makes you a whole lot different from what you was in
th' old days, 'fore you made the surprisin' discovery that you was a
aristocratic nobleman. In a heap o' ways you's the same Kiddie.
Nothin' c'n alter your natur' or wipe away th' effects of your early
trainin' as