nds of
firearms, an' playin' poker with the boys."

Ol' Cast Steel was all worked up over it, an' I thought a long time
before I answered him, then I sez, "Jabez, you're hard enough on the
child an' you're strict enough with her, but you ain't strict enough
with yourself. When it comes to a show down,--when you actually say yes
and now,--why, she gives in; but when you argue with her she's just as
sharp as you are, an' the' 's a heap o' things all children has to do
'at I reckon the' ain't no real sense in, so when you try to dig up a
reason for 'em you give 'em the whip hand. Just like religion: lots of
it is better just stated an' not mussed up tryin' to be explained. When
a parson tries to tell me why God created this universe, it don't sound
reasonable; but when I go out an' look at the stars an' the mountains
an' the big sweep o' the plains an' then try to round up all that
astronomer feller said about things, why, I just know 'at nobody but
God could 'a' done it--an' I reckon it's that way with a child. She
trusts you until you get down to her level an' then she sees that the'
ain't much difference between you, an' she naturally expects you to
play the same game by the same rules. You send her to school an' tell
her it's for her own good, an' let her'n the teacher fight it out.
That's a teacher's business an' they know how."

Well, they was a heap o' sense in what I said, an' I'd been thinkin'
over it a long spell; so when school opened up again in the fall Barbie
had her orders an' the' wasn't much in the way of trouble.

I didn't have any regular duties at the Diamond Dot--the worst trouble
about the Diamond Dot was that nobody had any regular duties. Jabez was
notionable to a degree, an' we all just floated along, doin' what we
did do right, but not havin' much of a plan for it. I could have
handled the place with ten less men an' got through on a tighter
schedule, but it was a fine place to work at an' we all got what was
comin' to us. Through the winter I used to ride over with Barbie when
the days was anyways rough, an' it took her a long time to find out
that Starlight really could beat her pinto. I reckon that child was the
best rider 'at ever backed a pony. As you might say she grew up with a
pony between her knees, an' the way she could play a bit in a hoss's
mouth was the finest sight I ever see. I ain't much of a fool when it
comes to pickin' out a ridin' critter, an' the pinto was able--most
uncomm