a frontier scout. You've lost none o' your skill an'
cleverness, but added suthin' to them that makes you inches taller an'
bigger'n you was. I guess it's the things you acquired in England as
makes you diff'rent. Rubbin' shoulders with them high-class friends o'
yours over thar has kinder wore off the rough corners."

"'Twas high time I quitted, perhaps," mused Kiddie. "If I'd stopped
over there any longer, I guess there wouldn't have been any corners
left to know me by. I should have been worn round as a pebble, exactly
like all other pebbles without character and individuality."

"Thar you are!" nodded Gideon, "'without character an' individuality,'
says you, as if you'd lifted the phrase outer a printed book. You
wouldn't ha' used sich choice an' dainty langwidge 'fore you went away.
Your speech has growed more c'rrect, more elegant, same as your dress."

"My dress, Gid? What's the matter with my dress?"

"Oh, yes," pursued Gideon. "You wears buckskins an' flannels an' a
frontier hat; you goes about with your shirt-sleeves rolled up an' a
scarf 'stead of a stiff starched collar; but you takes care that thar's
allus elegant underclothin' nex' yer skin. You've gotten surprisin'
clean habits, too: washes yourself three or four times a day, allus
shaves yerself mornin's an' oils an' brushes yer hair. You don't go
ter bed wi' yer boots and breeches on; you sleeps in a dinky suit o'
pyjamas with stripes on 'em, an' braid, an' fancy buttons. I ain't
complain'n' none, mind you. I gotter tremendous admiration fer all
these yer signs of gentlemanhood. Only they makes me feel ter'ble
humble, Kiddie. I feel 's if I oughter be sayin' 'sir' or 'your
lordship' all the time."

"I'm glad you never commit such an outrageous mistake, Gid," said
Kiddie, helping himself to preserved peaches with the spoon especially
provided for them. Rube had just used his own spoon for the same
purpose.

"An' thar's another thing--your manners at table," went on Gideon.
"You're that dainty in your ways of eatin' an' drinkin', you make me
feel like a brute animal 'stead of a well-brought-up human. Allus uses
yer fork, you do; never shovels th' food inter yer mouth with a knife;
never touches a bone wi' yer fingers. Seems ter me, Kiddie, if you was
livin' on a desert island, same's that chap Robi'son Crusoe, you'd
still show a example of perlite table manners t' the poll parrot an'
the nanny goat."

Kiddie smiled in amusement.