ttle ranch in Idaho, an' he
was goin' to read it all to me an' explain what it meant,--he was full
edicated, this feller was, an' had a voice as soft as a far-off bell,
an' an eye that seemed to reach right out an' shake hands with ya,--but
one day when I was away a posse surprised him, an' though he potted two
of 'em they finally put him out. He left me his Bible with a note in it
which said that he had killed the man all right an' that he would do it
again under the circumstances; but he couldn't tell a word in his own
defense 'count of mixin' in a woman. We never found out a word about
it, not even where the posse came from. Well, afterward I tried to read
it alone; but I couldn't make any headway. For one thing, the' 's too
many pedigrees to keep track of, an' the names are simply awful. I
don't want to be profane nor nothin', but hanged if I think the
Children of Israel was square enough to deserve all the heavenly favors
they got; so I finally gave up tryin' to read it. But what about you
an' Barbie?"

"Well," sez he, "I'd read the Bible clean through from cover to cover
an' I never saw anything unreasonable in it, so I thought I could set
Barbie right without any trouble. She read the first chapter, an' by
that time I was runnin' for cover an' yellin' for help. The' ought to
be something done about that book, it ain't right to try an' raise a
child to be honest, an' tell 'em that they must believe the Bible, an'
then have 'em find out what the Bible really sez."

"Well, what about it?" sez I.

"Well, it sez that the' was light an' darkness an' evenin' an' mornin'
on the first day; on the third day the' was all kinds o' grass an'
herbs yieldin' seeds, an' fruit trees yieldin' fruit; but the' wasn't
no sun or stars until the fourth day. Now how could you have evenings
an' mornings an' grass an' fruit trees without sunshine? You know that
wouldn't work, an' when she put it up to me I simply threw up my hands,
an' sent Spider Kelley with the buckboard to hunt up this missionary
preacher. He was long-haired an' pius, an' when I saw him I felt purty
sure he could straighten it out; but he wasn't game. Barbie argued fair
an' square, an' he lost his temper an' called her an infidel an' a
heretic an' a nagnostic; but she pulled a lot o' books on him, an' he
couldn't understand 'em an' blasphemed 'em something terrible; but he
see he was whipped, an' just simply ran away. I felt mighty bad about
Barbie bein' an infidel