t her hand on my arm.

"What do you mean, you men? Are you crazy?" says she. "I'll not have
this! Set down! You, Curly--you make any break here and I'll slap you in
the face," says she. "You hear me? Don't you start anything here!"

Well, now, you wouldn't think we'd all been broke up thataways just by a
girl, would you? But she had us on the run before we got started. It was
mostly because of all this being so unexpected. I didn't expect to see
the hired man at their table and Old Man Wright didn't expect to see
Bonnie Bell at all; so the whole herd begun to mill round.

She pushed her pa down into a seat, and me too.

"So that's the way you act when I'm not here!" says she. "You ought to
be ashamed of yourselves," says she. "I won't have any more of this."

Their hired man set down now, right serious. He didn't laugh none nor
try to pass it off. We all knew that it was a show-down, that it was a
settlement, and that it had to go through.

Old Man Wright he didn't seem to look at anyone but Bonnie Bell. If you
can say a man can look hungry with his eyes, that's the way he looked
then. By this time she was crying, and she puts her arms around his neck
now.

"Dad!" says she. "Pore old dad! Pore old foolish, unhappy dad!" Now she
begins to kiss him some; but he can't talk none--only pats her
shoulders.

"I'm the wretchedest, wickedest girl on earth," says she to him, pushing
back his hair, "and I'm the happiest too! Dad, listen to me. You mustn't
sit in judgment. Don't take things so hard. Wait--try to see. Try to see
if maybe there isn't some other will in the world besides your own,
dad--maybe some will bigger than all of ours. I couldn't help it,
dad--I couldn't! I'm so happy," says she, "so foolish happy now!"

"Happy?" says he at last; and he pushes her away from him. "With him,
there?" He nods now at the hired man, having got him placed. "What's he
doing here?" says he.

"Why shouldn't he be here?" says Old Man Wisner right then, speaking for
the first time. "He's my son!"

"_What's that?_" says Old Man Wright. "Your _son_!"

"Shore!" says he. "Who'd you think he was? He can eat at my table. He's
done well; he's married the best girl I ever seen!" says he. Then he
gets so he can't talk worth a cent too.

Shucks! I wisht I was most any place else. His son! How could his son be
his hired man, and where was the hired man if this wasn't him? I felt
myself begin to get sweaty on my face and all over. I'd b