ant to let
her make up things 'at wasn't so an' then be disappointed. "Who do you
suppose George was, an' Jack?" sez I quiet.

She drew her brows together an' sat diggin' her spur into the dirt.
"That's so, too," she said, thinkin' aloud. "But Barbara certainly did
have something to do with me, an' I wisht I knew! Oh, I wish I could
grow as big as I feel--I hate this bein' a child. I hate it!"

"Will you put the letter back an' try to forget it?" I said at last.

"I'll put it back at once, I'll give him the key at once; that is, I'll
slip it into his pocket, an' I won't pester him about it--now; but you
got to promise to tell me if you ever find it out. Will ya?"

"Yes," sez I. "If I ever find it all out I'll tell you, honest across
my heart."

"An' you won't say nothin' about this letter to Daddy, until I let
you?" she said, fixin' her eyes on me.

"No, I won't say a word about that until you tell me to," sez I.

"Now, then, let's play tag goin' back to the house," she said, with her
lip stiff again. Oh, she had a heart in her, that child had.

"You know the pinto has Starlight beat on turns an' twists," sez I.

"Yes," she sez, "an' on a two-hundred mile race, too." She played away
through the summer an' never spoke a word on the subject again; but she
hid it most too careful, and Jabez saw the' was somethin' on her mind.
"Have you any idea what the child's thinkin' about?" he asked me one
day when we was figurin' some on the beef round-up.

I didn't answer straight off, an' he noticed it. "What is she studyin'
about?" sez he, mighty shrewd.

"How can a body tell what that child is studyin' about?" sez I.

"You're with her most of the time--fact is, about all you do is to play
with her these days."

"Any time my work here don't suit you," I began; but he snaps in, "It
ain't a question o' work. If you amuse her you're worth more to me'n
any other ten men; but I have some rights. I want to know what you
think."

"Have you asked her?" sez I.

"I'm askin' you," sez he.

"Well, I want you to understand 'at I ain't no spy," sez I, glad of a
way out. "I don't know all 'at 's on her mind, an' I don't propose to
guess; and if I did know, I wouldn't tell unless she told me to. If you
know any way to make me tell, why go ahead and I'll stand by and watch
the proceedin's."

Well, he ranted up an' down a while, an' finally he pulls himself down
an' sez, "Now look here, Happy, the' 's a difference between a pare