eckon the moon made such an awful darkness
on purpose to scare you."

"How can you joke about it?" she demanded resentfully.

"I'm sorry, ma'am," he said with quick contrition. "You see, I was glad
to find you. An' you're all right now, you know."

"Yes, yes," she said, quickly forgiving. "I suppose I _am_ a coward."

"Why, no, ma'am, I reckon you ain't. Anybody sittin' here alone, a woman,
especial, would likely think a lot of curious thoughts. They'd seem real.
I reckon it was your ankle, that kept you from walkin'."

"It hurts terribly," she whispered, and she felt of it, looking at him
plaintively. "It is so swollen I can't get my boot off. And the leather
seems like an iron band around it." She looked pleadingly at him. "Won't
you please take it off?"

His embarrassment was genuine and deep.

"Why, I reckon I can, ma'am," he told her. "But I ain't never had a heap
of experience--" His pause was eloquent, and he finished lamely "with
boots--boots, that is, that was on swelled ankles."

"Is it necessary to have experience?" she returned impatiently.

"Why, I reckon not, ma'am." He knelt beside her and grasped the boot,
giving it a gentle tug. She cried out with pain and he dropped the boot
and made a grimace of sympathy. "I didn't mean to hurt you, ma'am."

"I know you didn't"--peevishly. "Oh," she added as he took the boot in
hand again, this time giving it a slight twist; "men are _such_ awkward
creatures!"

"Why, I reckon they are, ma'am. That is, one, in particular. There's
times when I can't get my own boots on." He grinned, and she looked icily
at him.

"Get hold of it just above the ankle, please," she instructed evenly and
drew the hem of her skirt tightly. "There!" she added as he seized the
limb gingerly, "now pull!"

He did as he had been bidden. She shrieked in agony and jerked the foot
away, and he stood up, his face reflecting some of the pain and misery
that shone in hers.

"It's awful, ma'am," he sympathized. "Over at the Diamond H, one of the
boys got his leg broke, last year, ridin' an outlaw, or tryin' to ride
him, which ain't quite the same thing--an' we had to get his boot off
before we could set the break. Why, ma'am; we had to set on his head to
keep him from scarin' all the cattle off the range, with his screechin'."

She looked at him with eyes that told him plainly that no one was going
to sit on _her_ head--and that she would "screech" if she chose. And then
she spoke to h