ome more
before he goes to Bear Creek."

"Ah, Bear Creek!" said Billy, acidly. "Why can't I stay home?"

"Home sounds kind o' slick," said Lin to me. "Don't it, now? 'Home' is
closer than 'neighbor,' you bet! Billy, put the horses in the corral,
and ask Miss Buckner if we can come and see her after supper. If you're
good, maybe she'll take yu' for a ride to-morrow. And, kid, ask her
about Laramie."

Again suspicion quivered over Billy's face, and he dragged his horses
angrily to the corral.

Lin nudged me, laughing. "I can rile him every time about Laramie," said
he, affectionately. "I wouldn't have believed the kid set so much store
by me. Nor I didn't need to ask Jessamine to love him for my sake. What
do yu' suppose? Before I'd got far as thinking of Billy at all--right
after Edgeford, when my head was just a whirl of joy--Jessamine says to
me one day, 'Read that.' It was Governor Barker writin' to her about her
brother and her sorrow." Lin paused. "And about me. I can't never tell
you--but he said a heap I didn't deserve. And he told her about me
picking up Billy in Denver streets that time, and doing for him because
his own home was not a good one. Governor Barker wrote Jessamine all
that; and she said, 'Why did you never tell me?' And I said it wasn't
anything to tell. And she just said to me, 'It shall be as if he was
your son and I was his mother.' And that's the first regular kiss she
ever gave me I didn't have to take myself. God bless her! God bless
her!"

As we ate our supper, young Billy burst out of brooding silence: "I
didn't ask her about Laramie. So there!"

"Well, well, kid," said the cow-puncher, patting his head, "yu' needn't
to, I guess."

But Billy's eye remained sullen and jealous. He paid slight attention
to the picture-book of soldiers and war that Jessamine gave him when we
went over to the station. She had her own books, some flowers in pots,
a rocking-chair, and a cosey lamp that shone on her bright face and dark
dress. We drew stools from the office desks, and Billy perched silently
on one.

"Scanty room for company!" Jessamine said. "But we must make out this
way--till we have another way." She smiled on Lin, and Billy's face
darkened. "Do you know," she pursued to me, "with all those chickens Mr.
McLean tells me about, never a one has he thought to bring here."

"Livin' or dead do you want 'em?" inquired Lin.

"Oh, I'll not bother you. Mr. Donohoe says he will--"

"Texas? Ch