well-meanin' sort of a feller, but slow. He belonged to the
show-me club, an' had all his facical muscles spiked fast for fear
they'd come loose an' grin before he saw the point himself.

Barbie see through the ol' man's lead, an' she took her revenge out on
Hawthorn. She would lean forward an' hold his eye, an' say, in the
sweetest voice you ever heard, "Oh. Mr. Hawthorn, I want to tell you
somethin' that happened at school;" an' then she would start in an'
tell some long-winded tale 'at didn't have no more point than a mush
room, an' as she told along she would call his attention to certain
details as though they was goin' to figger in at the wind-up. When she
would reach the end she would break out in a peal o' spontunious
laughter; while he would look as if he had been lost in the heart of a
great city without his name-plate on. Still, he had a certain breedy
look about him, an' before the week was up she grew ashamed of her-self
an' showed him a good time.

He was one o' these sad ones--sentimental an' romantic, with a bad case
o' chronic lonesomeness; an' one twilight he told her a pathetic little
love story about a girl back in England what had had sense enough to
cut him out of her assets when he had trooped over to this country to
punch a fortune out o' beef cattle. This had been about five years
previous; but his heart still ached about it--though it hadn't cut his
appetite so you could notice. She treated him mighty gentle after this,
an' when he started to ride away Jabez had the look of a man what had
filled his hand.

In about a week he came over an' stayed for a couple o' days, an' he
showed up at Christmas too; an' about once a week after that he'd drop
in an' stay four or five days. Early in March he paid a visit to his
own ranch to ready things up for spring, an' the day after he was gone
Jabez sez to Barbie at dinner, "Now, Mr Hawthorn is a gentle man. He
asked me for the honor of winnin' your hand in holy wedlock; an' I have
give my consent."

Barbie went along eatin' her meal, an' purty soon Jabez sez, "Well, did
you hear what I had to say?"

"Why, certainly I did," sez Barbie, calmly.

"What have you got to say about it?" sez he.

"Oh, nothin' in particular," sez she. "It was very polite in him to
ask, an' very kind in you to give your consent; but I can't see as it
interests me much. I can't see that he has any show of winnin' the
hand. I promised that once, an' I ain't never got the prom