Barbie an' three of the boys were in the room when I went in. Barbie
was tellin' the old man of our ride, an' the three punchers sat with
the rims of their lids between thumb an' finger, lookin' at the floor
as solemn as if they was on trial for their life. Barbie had just
finished about our meetin' up with Melisse when I stepped in.
"Who's boss o' this place?" sez Jabez to me.
"If the' is any boss," sez I, "I reckon you're it."
"Who told you you could be gone all day?" sez he.
"Nobody told me. Nobody told me what was to be done if I stayed. Nobody
hasn't told me what to do on a ranch for some several years. Why?"
"Looks to me as if you 'd have sense enough not to risk this child's
life with your fool nonsense," sez he. I looked at him calm an' steady,
an' I didn't grin--much.
He knew all 'at I was thinkin' of,--about my leavin' the last time an'
also about my comin' back,--but he also knew 'at I knew he was thinkin'
of the same thing, an' that we'd neither of us mention it, an' that it
wouldn't ever weigh an ounce in whatever happened to come between us. I
didn't say anything.
"What makes you humor her in everything for?" sez he.
"As far as I know, she ain't my child," sez I.
He give a start an' it made him groan. "What's the matter with your
leg?" sez I. "It's broke!" he yells. "Do you think I got it stuck up on
pillers 'cause my foot's asleep?"
"Is it easy that way?" sez I.
"No it ain't," he snaps.
"Perhaps if you'd get it fixed easy you might be able to talk easy," I
sez. "Do you want me to fix it easy?"
"For heaven's sake, yes, if you know how," he sez; so I examined it. It
was a nasty break. It seems 'at Jabez had hunted over the place to find
something to fuss about as soon as he discovered 'at Barbie an' me had
flown the coop. Luck was in his favor when Slinky Bill left Pluto's
door open an' he got out. It took 'em some time to get him back, an'
they finally roped him. None o' the boys seemed anxious to go into his
stall an' take the rope off unless he'd let them ride him a while to
get the ginger out of him. Jabez took a short club an' went in an' took
off the rope, an' if the boys hadn't been handy he'd 'a' been took off
himself. As it was the hoss had smashed his leg something fierce.
"Get a board," sez I. The three boys left in a body to get the board. I
lined up the bones as well as I could, 'cause the leg was some swelled.
Then I bandaged it purty tight, next took an old boot-leg an' bandaged
that in, an' finally split a joint of stovepipe an' packed cotton to
fit the leg, tyin' the whole business to the board when it arrived, an'
proppin' the board up on pillers with one at each side of the foot.
Then I wet the bandage on his head an' arm, puttin' in plenty of
turpentine on the arm to prevent poisonin'. The turpentine made him
twist an' grunt, but when it stopped burnin' his face cleared up.
"My leg's a heap easier," he sez. I only nodded. I knew he had a lot
more steam on his mind. Presently he said, "But we might as well settle
things now as any time. Who are you workin' for?"
"I settled that a long time ago," sez I. "I'm workin' for myself."
"Then what the deuce do you mean takin' my wages?" sez he.
"I ain't takin' your wages, I'm takin' my own," sez I; "but if I was
you I'd keep calm. You'll raise your fever."
"It's my fever!" he yells, an' even the three punchers had to grin.
"Look here, Jabez," sez I, "the' ain't any sense in your gettin' riled.
You ain't dangerous when you rant around, an' I know it; but you're
most uncommon irritatin'. We didn't run any risk in our ride to-day,
an' it proved 'at my way o' feedin' is the right way. You don't own a
pair o' hosses 'at can go out to-morrow an' keep in sight o' Starlight
an' the pinto. An' my way o' handlin' Pluto is the right way too, but
if you don't like my way o' workin' for myself on your ranch--why, the'
's plenty of other ranches. The' ain't no use o' your makin' us both
miserable, quarrellin' like a pair o' children."
"That's what I say," sez Barbie.
"You wait till you're spoke to," sez Jabez; but at that moment the
buckboard came in with old Melisse, an' the very first thing she did
was to chase the three punchers out o' the house, fix up a mess of her
own to put on Jabez's head an' arm, an' then she picks up Barbie in her
arms an' I saw the little chap's lip begin to quiver; I saw Jabez wink
his eyes too fast for comfort; I saw the tears rollin' down the cheeks
of old Melisse, an' I went out into the starlight to look up toward
Mount Savage where Monody was sleepin'. It's a funny thing, life. After
a while I went back inside an' they were purty cozy again. "You been
away purt nigh a year," sez Jabez, "where you been?"
Melisse grinned; she was a Mexican an' had been good lookin' a century
or so before. She was the silent sort, but she could do a heap sight
keener thinkin' 'an lots of 'em 'at kicks up more dust at it.
"Part o' the time I been right here at the ranch," she sez, "but when
the snow was heavy I stayed in a little cave right up the ravine from
the pony corral. You don't reckon 'at I'd leave this child just on your
account, do ya?"
It was some comical to see Jabez's face. "Lord, no!" sez he. "I'm in
the habit o' payin' wages to people 'at work for themselves, an' I
don't reckon I got the authority to make anybody get off my ranch. If
you've been foolin' around here, how come the dogs never barked at ya?"
"Dogs ain't apt to forget the hand that feeds 'em. After a dog has
thought well of ya for a while, he don't turn on ya just because you've
become out o' favor for a spell; the friendship of a dog works both
ways--dogs ain't like human beings, Jabez Judson."
Melisse had a low, musical voice; but I kind o' felt my hair raisin' in
pity for the man on the sofey. It seemed like she had stuck a knife
into him, an' was twistin' it around slow without losin' her temper. He
squirmed, he bit his lip, his thumbs kept runnin' over the inside of
his fingers. It was some time before he spoke, an' then he said, "How
much longer you goin' to keep that child awake?"
"She's been asleep in my arms for some time," sez Melisse, lookin' down
at Barbie's face, which was nestled up close to hers. "I reckon I'll
put her to bed now." She got up an' carried Barbie to the door an' then
she turned an' sez in a low tone: "You're mighty proud o' being called
Cast Steel, you love to trample over people; but I want to tell you
somethin' to remember; I sha'n't never be separated from this child
again except by her own will. Next time I can't live around you I'll
take her with me. You've known me a long time"--an' she shut the door
without slammin' it.
"Oh, I don't reckon it's allus some one else's fault," I sez, after he
had got through cussin' about his luck.
"Am I a hard man to work for?" sez he.
"You ain't," sez I.
"When am I ever unjust?" sez he.
"When you go off halfcock," sez I.
"What is it allus about?" sez he.
I thought over everything before I answered. "Why, it's allus about the
child Barbie."
"I ain't Cast Steel about her; I'm spring steel where she's concerned,
an' you fellers ought to know the way spring steel works if any one
does."
"That's all right," sez I,--I was still smartin' a little,--"but the
deuce of the thing is that you go off at halfcock, an' then you allus
expect the other feller to pay the damage. It's goin' hard with you
some day, Jabez, if you don't watch closer."
"Oh, you can't understand it. If you only knew what lyin' an'
disobedience sometimes does, you wouldn't talk so calm about it,
neither. The' ain't nothin' I wouldn't do for Barbara--except see her
get started wrong. You're different from the rest, some way, an' she
thinks more of you than the others. That's one reason why I give you a
wider circle to range in, an' why I give you foreman's pay for odd-job
work--"
"Now if you think 'at I don't earn all you're payin' me," sez I--but he
broke in: "If I didn't think I wouldn't pay it," sez he.
"I can go down to the Lion Head any time I want an' get more'n you're
payin' me," sez I.
"I can pay you as much as any man in the West," sez he.
"You couldn't hire me at all if it wasn't for Barbie," sez I.
"An' I wouldn't hire you at all if it wasn't for her," he snaps. "You
can do the right thing at the right time better'n any other man I ever
had; but you're the contrariest man to work with on the job. You're
allus flyin' up, an' you'd talk back if your throat was cut."
"I'm free," sez I, "an' what's more, I know it. The' ain't no law ever
been framed up yet 'at can herd me in with the cows, an' I don't never
intend to act like a cow. I'm man to man wherever I am, an' a lot o'
you fellers with big outfits are beginnin' to forget that proposition;
but I don't forget it, an'--"
"Well, for heaven's sake," he yells, "I ain't tryin' to put a bit in
your mouth; though I must confess if I had my way about it, I'd like to
put a quart o' bran there sometimes. What I'm tryin' to do is to come
to an understandin' about the child."
"Hasn't she gone to school every day this term?" sez I.
"There's another thing," sez he. "When I told you to give that
schoolmaster a rawhidin', you wouldn't do it."
"Course I wouldn't do it," sez I. "He may have been in the right as far
as I know, an' anyway, she gave him the worst of it."
"I don't want her to give 'em the worst of it. I want her to act like a
gal child. Ridin' her pony into the schoolroom an' ropin' the master
ain't no way for a gal child to act. What I want is for the teachers to
play fair. It ain't reasonable to suppose 'at these mountains was ever
under water."
"You stood for it when the astronomer said so," sez I; "an' the
Bible sez so, an'--"
"Well, that's all right when it comes to grown-ups; but the' ain't no
use makin' a child say somethin' it don't nowise believe. The truth is
more important than a lot of water 'at dried up millions of years
ago--if it ever was here."
"Well, the truth is a heap o' bother to Barbie's teachers at the best,"
sez I. "Look at her spellin'--she comes upon a cross-bred word in a
book an' the teacher sez it's pronounced one way, an' you another, an'
me another, until she thinks we're all liars; and she knows it the next
day when she comes across another word spelled almost alike an'
pronounced just the opposite. How you goin' to teach a child to spell
an' be honest both?"
"It's a damned outrage!" sez Jabez, his eyes flashin'. "Take 'thought'
an' through,' an' 'though'--why, it's enough to ruin the morals of the
best child the' is. Hang it, I--"
"Well, you had your own way about it," sez I. "You've had three
different teachers here this term."
"Who built the school?" sez Jabez. "Didn't I build it with my own
money, just so I'd have it handy, an' didn't I offer to pay the teacher
if they'd put it right here at the ranch?"
"You ain't got money enough to bring the world here to her feet,
Jabez," sez I, "an' it wouldn't be the best thing for her if you could."
Well, I sat there the whole blessed night, cheerin' him up. Every time
he'd get to thinkin' about his arm or his leg, I'd say somethin' to
rile him an' take his mind off his afflictions, an' along about dawn he
fell asleep. Spider Kelley had found the doctor almost in our
neighborhood, an' he arrived with him by ten in the mornin'. He paid me
a high compliment on the leg, an' after he'd rounded up a few splinters
it wasn't no trouble at all to set it; but Jabez was in for a good long
spell of it, an' the Spring round-up in sight. You might think that
this would rile him up too; but he took it like a hero, an' I kept him
in touch with everything.
We didn't have a regular foreman at the Diamond Dot. George Hendricks
took charge around the house, an' Omaha was a sort of ridin'
over-see-er; but Jabez himself tended to even little details when he
felt like it. When he didn't feel that way, any one else who thought of
it did. After the round-up Flap Jack decided to go on a bender. I tried
to talk him out of it, but he insisted, an' finally I sent him into
Jabez.
Flappy came away just tearin' mad. "He's the hardest-hearted old tyrant
ever breathed," sez Flappy to me.
"What now?" sez I.
"Last time I came back I was a day late," sez Flappy. "He fair frothed
at the mouth at it, an' made me promise to give him a month's notice
next time. How's a man to know a month ahead when he's goin' to be in
the notion for a bender. I'm fair ravin' for it now; but like's not
I'll be all out o' the notion in a month."
"Then you'll be a sight o' money ahead," sez I.
"Money? What's money for? Can you buy a thirst like mine with money?
Why, I could take this thirst o' mine to a city an' get independent
rich, just rentin' it out by the night. I've watched fellers drinkin'
when they didn't crave it, an' it hurt 'em somethin' dreadful. If you
don't want it, you can't enjoy it until you're under the influence of
it, an' after you're under the influence of it half the fun o' drinkin'
it is gone."
Flappy had studied this question more'n airy other man I ever see, an'
it was edicatin' to hear him lecture on it.
"The's only one way to get around ol' Cast Steel," sez I, winkin'; so
he got Barbie to beg for him when she went in that evenin', an' she got
Jabez to let him go next day; but after Jabez'd had time to think it
over, he sez to me, "Now see what I've done--I've let that child
wheedle me into changin' my mind an' lettin' a man break his word."
"Well, he needed it mighty bad," sez I.
"An' another thing; it ain't no fit thing for a gal child to be beggin'
for a man to go get drunk," sez Jabez. "Maybe not," sez I, "but he sure
needed it."