hey could think up an' pretend 'at we believed it; an'
hanged if I don't begin to suspicion that the' 's a heap o' truth in
some o' their nonsense.

Purty near every one of 'em insisted that at one time all those
mountains, even old Savage, had been under water, an' they'd take us
out an' show us the signs; but we couldn't stomach that until we found
out that this was one o' the Injun traditions too, an' then we give in.

Well, one o' these strays was what they call an astronomer. His
speciality was the stars, nothing less; an' he knew 'em by name an'
could tell you how far off they are an' what they weigh an' how many
moons they had an'--oh, he knew 'em the same as I know the home herd,
an' he didn't only know what they had done--he knew what they was
a-goin' to do, an' when he called the turn on 'em, why they up an' done
it. Comets an' eclipses an' sech like miracles were jest the same to
this feller as winter an' summer was to me, an' we fed him until he
like to founder himself, tryin' to hold him through the winter; but at
last he had to go, an' after he'd gone Cast Steel was purty
down-hearted for quite a spell.

"It ain't fair, Happy," sez he to me one day after the astronomer had
gone.

"No," sez I, "I reckon it will rain before mornin'."

"I mean it ain't a fair shake," sez he. "Jupiter has eight of 'em an'
we ain't but one an' the' ain't nobody lives there, while--"

"What do you happen to be talkin' of?" sez I.

"Why moons," sez he. "It seems too doggone bad for that confounded
planet to have eight moons an' no one to enjoy 'em while my little girl
jest dotes on 'em an' we only have one--an' IT don't work more'n half
the time."

That was Cast Steel: he didn't look on life or death, or wealth or
poverty, or anything else except in the way it applied to Barbie--but
she was worth it, she was worth it, an' I never blamed him none.

But you needn't get the idea that Jabez was one o' these fond an'
lovin' parents what sez: "My child, right if perfectly convenient, but
right or wrong, my child." Not on your future prospects! Jabez, he sez:
"My child, right from the shoes up, if the Rocky Mountains has to be
ground to powder to make her so."

I remember the day she was six year old; he hardly ever laid out the
details for her conduct, he jest sort o' schemed out a general plan and
left her free to adjust herself to it, like a feller does with a dog or
a pony he expects to keep a long time an' don't want to