othes; so for a moment I thought his sour look was the same ill humor
I'd left him in; an' then I saw it was more serious, an' my heart
stopped with a thump.

He looked up just then an' we stared at each other without speakin'.
"Ain't you dead?" sez he.

"No I ain't," sez I.

"We heard you was," sez he; "killed in a muss over at Danders."

"I don't believe it," sez I, "an' besides, I ain't been in Danders for
over seven years."

"Well, then, what made you stay away so long for?" sez he, sort o'
snappy.

"I don't remember you sheddin' any tears when I left, an' I don't
recall you beggin' me to hurry back," sez I. I was pleased at the way I
was bein' received an' I meant to make him show his hand.

"You know as well as I do that things allus go better on this ranch
when you're here."

"Yes," sez I.

"An' you know 'at I don't like to beg no man to do anything; but you
ought to see that I know that you're the usefullest man I ever had, an'
you oughtn't to be so fly-uppity," sez he.

"Now see here, Jabez," sez I, "you're one o' the kind o' men who never
own up 'at a man was fit to live until after he's dead. You're like
some o' these Easterners--they get so everlastin' entranced with the
beautiful scenery that they forget to water their ridin' hosses. I
don't ask no special favors, but I ain't so mortal thick-skinned
myself, an' you ought to learn sometime that there is hosses 'at work
better when they're not beat up an' yelled at."

"Are you goin' to stay this time?" sez he.

"As long as it's agreeable--all around," sez I. "Is everything goin'
smooth?"

The down-hearted look came into his eyes again. "She won't speak to
me," sez he.

"You don't mean to say 'at you've gone an' got married," sez I, "or
that you are tryin' to?"

"I ain't such a fool," he snaps. "It's Barbie, I mean."

"How long has this been goin' on?" sez I.

"This is the fourth meal," sez he; an' he was so solemn about it that I
was some inclined to snicker, but then it flashed upon me that when I
left, the child was all het up over the letter she'd found in the
attic, and I sobered an' sez, "Is it something 'at's goin' to be hard
to smooth over?"

"I don't see how the deuce it's ever goin' to be smoothed over," sez
Jabez, desperately.

"Would you feel like sort o' hintin' what it was about?" sez I.

"Well, it's about the way she acts," sez Jabez. "Confound it, Happy,
she's the best gal child ever was on this earth, I reckon, but