order,
so I don't see how we're goin' to straighten it out."

I pertended to be mad. "Jabez," I sez, "I do wish I could come back to
this ranch just once an' find it runnin' smooth. Here I come all the
way from Nevada just to see it once again, an' I find the boss an' his
daughter ain't on speakin' terms, an' I have to stand palaverin' for a
solid hour without anything bein' asked about my appetite, an' me just
finishin' a twenty-mile walk."

"By George, I'm sorry!" sez Jabez. "But hang it, Happy, you ought to
savvy this place well enough by this time to know 'at no human ever has
to set up an' beg for food. I'm glad to see you 'cause the little girl
does set a heap by you, an' you seem to have a way o' straightenin' out
the kinks. While you're eatin' breakfast see if you can't think up some
way to get her to talkin' again." We started to walk to the house, an'
I sez, "just what was your orders about these buckskins?"

"I told her to take 'em off at once an' throw 'em out the window, sez
he.

"Did she do it?" sez I.

"She allus obeys orders when she drives me to issue 'em--but I allus
get a sting out of it, some way or other. This time I issued the order
at the supper table, an' she went upstairs to her room, stuffed the
suit full o' pillows, stood in the window, an' screamed until me an'
the boys ran out to see what was the matter. Then she threw the figger
out an' we thought she had jumped, an' I made a fool o' myself. It's
playin' with fire every time you cross her, but she allus obeys orders.
Still, it's tarnation hard to be her father--not that I'd trade the job
for any other in the country, at that."

I had to chuckle inward all the way to the house, an' just before we
arrived to it I purt' nigh exploded. Here come a figger, heavily veiled
an' wearin' a shapeless sort of a dress affair made out of a bedquilt
an' draggin' behind on the ground. It walked along slow an' dignified,
like some sort of a heathen ghost, an' when it came to a pebble in the
path it would walk around it an' not step over, all the time holdin' a
hand lookin' glass to see that her toe didn't show. I just took one
side-eye at Jabez an' his face looked like a storm cloud at a picnic;
but when Barbie see who I was she tore off the veil, gathered up her
skirts, an' yelled, "Happy! Happy Hawkins, is it really you?"

"I'm ready to take my oath on it, madame," sez I, not crackin' a smile;
"but if I might make so bold, who are you?"

"Oh, Ha