to realize 'at you ain't nothin' but a
child. Your father is willin' to give you a fair show; he don't ask you
to act like a girl, all he wants is for you to look like one."

"If I have to wear a skirt, you know mighty well I can't ride," sez she.

"You don't have to wear a thing like what you have on now," I sez. "Why
don't you get over your pout an' be sensible. He never asks you to
humble yourself. All you need is to do what he wants, an' he'll drop it
at once."

"Yes," sez she, "all I need to do is to give up my independence an'
he'll think I'm a nice little girl."

"Why don't you figger out some kind of a dress that would look like a
girl's and--and work like a boy's?" sez I.

She sat thinkin' for a minute an' then sez, "That wouldn't be a
complete surrender, that would only be a compromise; an' I'd be mighty
glad to do it if the' was only some way."

"Where's that picture of the girl who whipped the king?" sez I.

She ran an' got it, an' it was a dandy lookin' girl all right,--it
looked a little mite like Barbie herself,--but she was wearin' clothes
'at most folks would think undesirable; they was made out of iron an'
covered with cloth.

"You don't want to wear any such thing as that, Barbie," sez I, "it
would be too blame hot, an' that bedquilt thing's bad enough."

"That's what they used to fight in," sez she.

"They must 'a' been blame poor shots," sez I. "Why, I could shoot 'em
through those eye-holes as fast as they came up, an' she don't even
wear any head part with hers." Then an idea struck me: "But why don't
you make a suit like her outside one?" sez I. "It comes below her knees
an' yet she can ride in it all right."

Well, we got old Melisse to help us, an' by four o'clock the thing was
done. We had used up some dark-green flannel that Jabez had bought to
have a dress made of, an' which she had kicked on. She took it up to
her room an' I went out to find Jabez. I told him that she was always
willin' to give in when any honorable way was pointed out, an' he was
the tickledest man in the West. He went in to supper four times before
it was ready, but when it finally was ready Barbie wouldn't come down.

Melisse went after her an' come back sayin' that Barbie didn't feel
hungry an' was goin' to wait until after dark an' then wear it outdoors.

"What nonsense!" sez Jabez. "Here she's been wearin' regular buckskin
pants, an' now she fusses up about what you say is a half dress. You go
an' get h