ut he's been through what my father went through, and
it made me feel kinder to him, somehow.

"But his eye is bad. Maybe it got in the habit of shifting about
looking for Indians in the sagebrush. Sometimes he seems still to be
looking for Indians. Well, I see where's he's right there, and I'm
going to tell you why, which brings me to the biggest news yet.

"Now I've come to the day when I sent you the telegram, and why I sent
it, so be prepared! There was to be a big picnic, today, near a town
called Independence, and, as it happened, I didn't feel like going, so
begged off--let me tell you why: I began a novel, last night, full of
bright conversation, the pages all broken up in little scraps of print
that hurry you along as if building steps for you to run down--it was
ever and ever more interesting than real people can be. It was a story
about a house-party and the writer just made them talk to suit himself
and not to suit their dulness as a real house-party must, you know. So
I stayed to finish that book. Oh, of course if I had had a lover to be
with! But that's something I'll never have, I suppose; but I don't
complain, Brick, for you've given me everything else I ever wanted.

"The reason I would like to have a lover is as follows: So I would
understand the experience of being regarded that way. It would be like
plowing up the sage-brush to plant kafir-corn and millo-maize, because
until such time, there is bound to be a part of my nature unworked.

"Now, there is a nook in Mr. Gledware's library, a sort of alcove where
you have a window all to yourself but are shut off from the rest of the
room, and that is where I was when two men came in softly and closed
and locked the door behind them. I couldn't see them but just as I was
starting up to find out what it meant, one of them--it was Mr.
Gledware, which surprised me greatly as he had gone with the rest to
the picnic--spoke your name, Brick. As soon as I beard that name, and
particularly on account of the way he spoke it, I determined to 'lay
low' and scout out the trouble. So I just drew up as small as possible
in my chair, as you would slip along through the high grass if Indians
were near, and I listened. Maybe if I had finished my civilization I
would have been obliged to let them know I was there; but fortunately,
I haven't reached the limit, yet.

"The other man, I soon found, was Red Kimball; they had about finished
their conversation be