ientist the' was would be willin' to
admit that it must have been created some way or another; and that we'd
all be the better for the work these scientists was doin', but that she
mustn't confuse the word with the spirit, for it was the spirit which
giveth life. He's an A I man, Friar Tuck is; but when I offered him
twice as much a year as he's gettin' to stay an' teach her, he just
laughed again, an' said that I wasn't in no position to double the kind
o' wages he was workin' for. I was a little put out at this, but Barbie
said he was talkin' in parables."

"Was she wearin' the buckskin pants when he was here?" sez I.

"Yes, she was, an' I didn't much like the way he acted about that. At
first he thought she was a boy, an' it made me hot; but he sez to me,
'Didn't God create man first?' I owned up that he did. 'Well, then,'
said he, 'let this child develop the man side of her first, so that she
may have strength an' courage for all her journey.' Everything that man
sez has the ring o' truth in it, an' I didn't have much of a come-back,
except to say that she was overdoing it. He called Barbie over to him
an' looked into her eyes an' put his big hand on her head an' afterward
he sez to me, 'You needn't worry; soon enough a soul which is all woman
will stand before you and ask questions which will make you long for
these days back again. Give her all the time she will take.'"

"What else did he say?" sez I.

"Well, he asked me if I had ever noticed a litter of pups. I said I
had, and he wanted to know if the' was much difference in the way they
played. I owned up that the' wasn't. Then he looked sort o' worried an'
asked me if I had ever found any of 'em to get their sex mixed up bad
enough to have the tangle last through life. I had to admit that I
never had, an' he laughed at me good an' proper--but his laughs never
hurt. I didn't mind about her wearin' the buckskins after that so much."

"Well, then, what made you rear up about 'em yesterday?" sez I.

"I hired a new man when she was out ridin',--day before yesterday it
was,--an' when she came in he thought she was a boy an' kind o' got
gay, an' she panned him out; an' he cussed her an' she drew a gun on
him an' made him take it back, an' he might o' taken some spite out on
her before he found out she was a girl. She is too sizey now, an'
confound it, leggin's an' a short skirt ought to satisfy any
female--but now she won't speak to me, an' I can't go back on my