ed into the collar
again an' trotted along just in the same old gait.

It was just as I thought. Barbie was plumb wild to hear all those
college stories, an' the queer words that Ches used to talk with. She
asked me about a thousand questions that I wasn't sure on the answers;
but I made out to interest her, an' Jabez' face used to beam when he'd
hear her laugh ring out.

We were sure a happy household; but I noticed mighty soon that Barbie
was more restless than ever; but also had more control over herself.
She wasn't so quick about either askin' questions nor givin' answers as
she used to be, an' she noticed things closer--an' this was goin' some
too; 'cause she allus did inspect everything that came on her range.

We had a gang o' tourists swoop down on us for a couple o' days, an' it
tickled me to see her watch 'em an' draw back in her shell any time she
thought they was watchin' her. I knew every line in her face, an'
mighty few of her thoughts came as a surprise when she framed 'em into
words. She never said it all now, unless she was het up about
something, an' I like to listen to any one 'at talks like that. Her
best thoughts were never accented, they just came in as packin' like,
an' it added to the interest. When a feller hands out a little
commonplace idy an' then sends along a couple o' verses to tell what it
means, I get weary; but when I'm able to see into somethin' that lays
too close to his heart to say out, an' too close to forget, why I feel
as if I had found a real jewel, an' that was the way with Barbie. I
knew that somethin' was tuggin' at her; but when I found out exactly
what it was, it came with almost as much of a shock as if I hadn't
known it was there all the time.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMAN

Barbie had grown some more, even durin' the little time 'at I'd been
away. She had got used to the new rig she wore an' wasn't a mite
awkward, an' her face was firmer an' more self-composed. She was
purtier too, though it don't seem possible. It even seems more
impossible when I tell ya that she looked more like of Cast Steel than
ever. He an' the girl was a heap alike, 'cept that he was big an'
raw-boned an' spare-featured; while she was as dainty as an antelope,
an' as far as looks went, she was the Queen Bee of Creation, I reckon.

When it came to ridin' a bucker or shootin' off an eye-winker or
expressin' herself free an' frank, she didn't have to import no
testim