to find
it out some way or other--I'm going to find out everything I want to
know before I'm done. I love my Daddy, but he don't always play fair;
an' I'm goin' to find out what I want to find out--whether he wants me
to or not."

I was in a sweat. "Barbie," I sez at last, "supposin' he is playin'
fair? Supposin' he has sacrificed his own happiness to keep sorrow out
of your life, an' supposin' you nose around an' discover it--who'd be
the one 'at played un-fair then? You're powerful young yet; you're a
heap younger'n you realize, an' you can't know it all in a day. He'll
tell you when he can, an' you ought to trust him. He loves you more'n
anything else in this wide world. You ought to trust him, Barbie."

She trembled tryin' to steady herself, an' I looked off into the valley
for a moment. "I know he loves me, an' I wouldn't hurt him for the
world; but I think I'm old enough to know, an' I'm goin' to ask him. If
he won't tell me now he has to set a date to tell me. I ain't goin' to
have no dirty-faced school kids askin' me questions I can't answer."

"I reckon all you want to know is in that chest in the garret," sez I;
"an' I reckon it's kept for you to read after--well some day; but if I
was you, I'd put back the letter an' I'd not think about it any more'n
I could help. Supposin' your Dad had had to kill a man to save your
mother, an' didn't want you to know 'at he had ever killed a man--"

"Humph!" she snaps in. "Didn't Claud kill fourteen men in Gore Gulch,
an' didn't I think it was fine? If he's killed a man I'd be proud of
it."

"It's different in real life," sez I. "I like to read about Claud
myself, but I wouldn't want to slaughter men in the quantities he does."

"You killed a man oncet yourself," sez she.

"When?" sez I.

"You killed at least one o' the Brophy gang with the butt of your gun,"
sez she.

"It couldn't be proved," sez I.

"It couldn't be denied," sez she. "If that's all you think it is I'm
goin' to ask him."

"Supposin' your mother had made him promise not to tell you until you
came of age,--you know what store he sets on keepin' his word,--would
you be glad to know 'at you had made him break it? This Barbara might
have been his sister, an' some one else might have been your mother."

"Oh, I see it now--my mother was the Creole Belle, the beautiful lady.
He allus said she was beautiful, the most beautiful woman in the
world--" She sat there with her eyes flashin', but I didn't w