like to get that. She had
a swift vision of him standing over there by the window and reading it
with those swift, shuttling glances, holding the handkerchief squeezed
up in his hand the while. She remembered how she had begun it--"Brave
Buckaroo"--and her cheeks turned pink. He should have it when he came.
Something had kept him away. He would come just as soon as he could.
She laid the letter back upon the mantel and set a china cow on it to
keep it safe there. Then she turned brightly and began to set the
table for Phoebe and John and herself, and came near setting a fourth
place for Ward, she was so sure he would come as soon as he could.
Mommie used to say that if you set a place for a person, that person
would come and eat with you, in spirit if not in reality.

Phoebe glanced at her pityingly when she saw her hesitating, with the
fourth plate in her hands. Phoebe thought that Billy Louise had
unconsciously brought it for mommie. Phoebe did not know that love is
stronger even than grief; for at that moment Billy Louise was not
thinking of mommie at all.

CHAPTER XXI

SEVEN LEAN KINE

"And you looked good, all up above here?" Billy Louise held Blue
firmly to a curved-neck, circling stand, while she had a last word with
John before she went off on one of her long rides.

"All up in the hills, and round over by Cedar Creek, and all over."
John's mittened gesture was even more sweeping than his statement. "I
guess mebby them rustlers git 'em."

"Well, I'm going up to the Cove. I may not be back before dark, so
don't worry if I'm late. Maybe I'll look along the river. I know one
place where I believe cattle can get down to the bottom, if they're
crazy enough to try it. You didn't look there, did you?"

"No, I never looked down there. I know they can't git down nohow."

"Well, all right; maybe they can't." Billy Louise slackened the reins,
and Blue went off with short, stiff-legged jumps. It had been a long
time since he had felt the weight of his lady, and his mood now was
exuberant, especially so, since the morning was clear, with a nip of
frost to tingle the skin and the glow of the sun to promise falsely the
nearness of spring. The hill trail steadied him a little, though he
went up the steepest pitch with rabbit-jumps and teetered on his toes
the rest of the way.

Billy Louise laughed a little, leaned, and grabbed a handful of slatey
mane. "Oh, you Blue-dog!" she said, for that w