mind, Mrs. Jerry was beautiful and perfect, even in her
shapeless brown dress that was always clean. Teresita herself would
never have worn that dress at all, yet it did not occur to her that Mrs.
Jerry might have some very feminine quality of pride crowded down into
some corner of her sweet nature. So Teresita was mightily offended at
what she considered a slight from the only gringo woman she had ever
known; and she was also bitterly disappointed over the abandonment of
the new coiffure.

"Why don't you wear it just the way it is, honey?" Mrs. Jerry had
suggested--and very sensibly, too. "I wouldn't go and twist it all up
and stick pins through it, if I was you. It's prettier just that way."

Teresita had understood enough of that, thanks to the teachings of her
blue-eyed one, to know that the pretty senora did not mean to keep her
promise. She had gone almost immediately to the cabin door to tell Jack
that she was ready to go home. And Jack, deep in one of those
interminable conversations with Jerry himself, over on the pile of logs
that would one day be a stable if Jerry's hopes reached fruition, had
merely waved his hand carelessly when he saw her, and had given all his
attention to Jerry again.

Of course, Teresita could not know that they were discussing a brief but
rancorous encounter which Jerry had had with Manuel that morning, when
the two happened to meet farther down the valley while Manuel was riding
his share of the rodeo circle. Two of Jose's men had been with Manuel,
and their attitude had been "purty derned upstropolus," according to
Jerry. (Jack decided after a puzzled minute that the strange word which
Jerry spoke with such relish must be Simpsonese for obstreperous.) They
had, in fact, attempted to drive off three of Jerry's oxen to the rodeo
ground, and only the characteristic "firmness" of Jerry had prevented
them from doing it. Jemina, he said, had helped some when pointed at
Manuel's scowling face; but Jerry opined that he would hereafter take
the twins along too when he rode out anywhere, and that he guessed he'd
cut another loophole or two in his cabin walls.

All of these various influences had created an atmosphere which Teresita
felt and resented without attempting to understand. The big senor had
not given her the smiles and the funny attempts at conversation which
she had come to accept as a matter of course. The pretty senora had not
been as enthusiastic as she should have been, when