mb; what I really wanted was to get to
father and mother quick. I knew he was at the barn and he was going to
be too happy for words in a minute. But as I went up the lane, I
wasn't sure whether I'd rather pray about that Paget man or bruise him
with my heel like a serpent. The only way I could fix it was to
remember if Shelley loved him so, he must be mighty nice. Father was
in the wagon shovelling corn from it to a platform where it would be
handy to feed the pigs, so I ran and called him, and put one foot on a
hub and raised my hands. He pulled me up and when he saw how important
it was, he sat on the edge of the bed, so I told him: "Father, you
haven't got a thing in the world to be ashamed of about Shelley."

"Praise the Lord!" said father like I knew he would, but you should
have seen his face. "Tell me about it!"

I told him and he said: "Well, I don't know but this is the gladdest
hour of my life. Go straight and repeat to your mother exactly what
you've said to me. Take her away all alone, and then forget about it,
you little blessing."

"Father, have you got too many children?"

"No!" he said. "I wish I had a dozen more, if they'd be like you."

When I went up the lane I was so puffed up with importance I felt too
dignified to run. I strutted like our biggest turkey gobbler. The
only reason you couldn't hear my wings scrape, was because through
mistake they grew on the turkey. If I'd had them, I would have dragged
them sure, and cried "Ge-hobble-hobble!" at every step.

I took mother away alone and told her, and she asked many more
questions than father, but she was even gladder than he. She almost
hugged the breath out of me. Sometimes I get things RIGHT, anyway!
Then I took the comb and ran back to Shelley.

"I thought you'd forgotten me," she said.

She had wiped up and was looking better. If ever I combed carefully I
did then. Just when I had all the tangles out, there came mother. She
had not walked that far in a long time. I thought maybe she could
comfort Shelley, so I laid the comb in her lap and went to see how the
snake hunters were coming on. It must be all right, when the Bible
says so, but the African Jungle will do for me, and a popgun is not
going to scatter families. I never felt so strongly about breaking
home ties in my life as I did then. There was nothing worse. It was
not where I wanted to be, so I thought I'd go back to the barn, and
hang around father, ho