I want you boys to remember one thing," she said firmly, "and that is
that there must be no more shooting going on around here. It isn't only
what Baumberger thinks--I don't know as ho's got anything to say about
it--it's what _I_ think. I know I'm only a woman, and you all consider
yourselves men, whether you are or not, and it's beneath your dignity,
maybe, to listen to your mother.

"But your mother has seen the day when she was counted on as much,
almost, as if she'd been a man. Why, great grief! I've stood for hours
peeking out a knot-hole in the wall, with that same old shotgun Donny
got hold of, ready to shoot the first Injun that stuck his nose from
behind a rock."

The color came into her cheeks at the memory, and a sparkle into her
eyes. "I've seen real fighting, when it was a life-and-death matter.
I've tended to the men that were shot before my eyes, and I've sung
hymns over them that died. You boys have grown up on some of the stories
about the things I've been through.

"And here last night," she reproached irritatedly, "I heard someone say:
'Oh, come on--we're scaring Mum to death!' The idea! 'scaring Mum!' I
can tell you young jackanapes one thing: If I thought there was anything
to be gained by it, or if it would save trouble instead of MAKING
trouble, 'MUM' could go down there right now, old as she is, and SCARED
as she is, and clean out the whole, measly outfit!" She stared sternly
at the row of faces bent over their plates.

"Oh, you can laugh--it's only your mother!" she exclaimed indignantly,
when she saw Jack's eyes go shut and Gene's mouth pucker into a tight
knot. "But I'll have you to know I'm boss of this ranch when your
father's gone, and if there's any more of that kid foolishness
to-day--laying behind a currant bush and shooting COFFEE-POTS!--I'll
thrash the fellow that starts it! It isn't the kind of fighting I'VE
been used to. I may be away behind the times--I guess I am!--but I've
always been used to the idea that guns weren't to be used unless you
meant business. This thing of getting out and PLAYING gun-fight is kinda
sickening to a person that's seen the real thing.

"'Scaring Mum to death!"' She seemed to find it very hard to forget
that, or to forgive it. "'SCARING MUM'--and Jack, there, was born in the
time of an Indian uprising, and I laid with your father's revolver on
the pillow where I could put my hand on it, day or night! YOU scare
Mum! MUM will scare YOU, if there's any