up
as I had been; but I knew that Bill Andrews was well aware of what had
saved him. I also knew that he'd hate me to the day of his death--but
he'd fear me to the last minute, an' he'd never start but one more
contest.

The Diamond Dot didn't seem so homelike after that; it was a heap
easier to get the best of Bill Andrews than it was to get rid of those
questions; but I tried to act just as much the same as possible, only I
did as much range ridin' as I could make seem natural. I supposed that
Bill Andrews would leave, but he didn't; he stayed right along an' he
worked hard an' he never kicked. He was allus friendly with me, but he
didn't overdo it, an' things went along smooth as joint oil.

Barbie had gone through all the stuff they taught at the Spike Crick
School, an' was studyin' some advance stuff with the teacher who was
ambitious to finish her own edication. This was a big surprise to me; I
had allus supposed that a teacher knew everything, but it seems not.
The' 's lots they don't know, an' the front they put up before a pupil
is two thirds bluff. A naked body's a disappointin' sight, but I bet a
naked soul would make a crow laugh.

All through that winter I was tryin' to find an excuse to quarrel with
Jabez, but the' wasn't none. The' wasn't one hitch in the whole outfit
except that I'd lost my taste for it. I couldn't get it out of my head
that one man had already taken me for a child's playmate, an' while I
knew that this particular man had other views by this time, I didn't
know how long it would be before some one else would find that same
idea gettin' too big to keep under his breath; so the very second that
spring opened I hunted up Jabez one mornin' after I had given old Pluto
a special good rubbin', an' after talkin' a while about nothin' at all,
I sez to him, "Jabez, I'm goin' to pull out purty soon."

"What for?" sez he.

"The' ain't no chance on this place for a man to get on," I sez.

"What do you want to get on for?" Sez he. Well, that was a fetcher. The
great trouble in debatin' with a man is, that he never flushes up the
kind of an idea 'at your gun is loaded to shoot. "What does any one
want to get on for?" sez I.

"I don't know," sez Jabez, kind o' sad like. "It's been so long since I
wanted to get on that I can't remember what fool notion it was that
sicked me at it; but it looks to me as though you was doing purty well,
considerin' the way you work."

There it was again. It was j