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
testimony to prove 'at she was his daughter either. She had him skinned
on ridin' though; 'cause while he was able to set anything on four
feet, he allus showed 'at he had begun late in life, an' he sometimes
jerked the bit unintentional; while she--well, I reckon she must 'a'
been born on hoss-back, an' besides, I had give her all the pointers
the' was.
One mornin' about ten days after I'd come back, I heard 'em discussin'
purty heatedly out back of the corral; an' I just sauntered over to
harken to it. It wasn't a case of eavesdroppin', 'cause when them two
had any comments to make they didn't care a blue bean what the
prevailin' style in opinions happened to be, they nailed their own
personal jedgments on the wall an' then stuck around handy to back 'em
up. I was particular anxious to know what they was crossin' words over,
'cause I couldn't get it out o' my head but what my comin' back an'
findin' 'em peaceable betokened something.
Jabez was standin' with his feet wide apart, his hands on his hips, his
hat tilted over one ear, his chin stickin' out with the lips pursed up,
an' his eyes had a dogged look in 'em. Line by line an' feature by
feature, she shadowed him to the last item; an' neither one of 'em saw
a twinkle o' comicalness in it, neither.
"Do you know who you're talkin' to?" he yells just as I arrived. "I'm
your father!"
"What of it?" she snaps back. "It's too late to remedy that--I just got
to make the best of it. But do you know who you're talkin' to? I'm the
future owner of the Diamond Dot, an' I ain't a-layin' no plans to have
the lala-kadinks from the civilized parts o' this country come out an'
round up my langwidge, same as they gather Injun speciments. You may be
my father, but you can just bet your saddle that before I reach the end
o' my trail, a stranger won't be able to guess it from our talk."
Now the old man was mighty savin' with his cuss-words, a' he put out a
purty tol'able fair grade o' grammar; but the girl had an eye in her
head and an ear to listen with, an' she had been for a long time takin'
notice o' the side winks o' the Easterners. Some Easterners put on
their manners the same as their complexions, an' the open air is apt to
put cracks in 'em.
The of man looked at her a good long while, but she never blinked a
winker; an' he finally turned away an' said in a soft-like voice, "I
know, child, I ain't been able to fill the part full measure--but it
ain't 'cause I haven't tried. I reckon you'll have to go, honey; but
it'll sure be lonesome while you're away; an' when you do come back
you'll never be my little kid any more." His voice kept gettin' sadder
an' sadder until I about snuffled myself when he continued "I'll rub up
my talk all I can while you're away, an' then if you bring out any
friends next summer you can tell 'em that I'm the foreman an' that you
let me eat in the house while your father is takin' a trip to Europe."
The ol' man would have played that part about as natural as a bull
buffalo, but he fooled himself into believin' it, an' his voice was
purty shaky at the end. Barbie's eyes filled up with tears, an' when he
stopped an' began to totter feebly toward the house, she ran up an'
threw her arms about his neck, an' said. "Dad. I just hate you--you
don't play fair. You start the game under one set o' rules an' then
when you get the worst of it you just simply crawfish. When we were
sayin' mean things out in the open, I just natchly put it all over you;
an' now you flop over on your back an' work that 'coals o' fire' stunt,
an' I just hate you. You know in your heart I'd be proud of you in any
company on earth, but the' is a heap o' difference between you an' me.
You have been successful, an' strangers will respect you for it; but
it's got to be a show-down with me every time. If I don't learn the new
gaits, so a stranger will think I'm city-broke, some fresh tourist is
apt to get the idee that I'm as uncivilized as my manners, an' it won't
do to tramp on my toes--not overly often. But I don't have to leave
you. I'll just turn in an' do the job right here on the ranch, an'
accordin' to the very latest models. You get me a lot o' books an' all
the magazines an' fashion papers, an' hanged if I don't turn out a job
'at'll fool the best of 'em. You're a mean old Daddy, you are, for a
fact; but we snake too dandy a duet for me to go away an' leave you to
grind out a solo all alone. But--but I sure wanted to go."
Well, Jabez grinned all over; but I saw that he wasn't through with it
so easy. Barbie wasn't the one to throw her rope before she was all
braced for the jerk, an' the' wouldn't be any kinks in her logic,
neither. She had thrown a purty stout string of arguments, an' I was
full prepared when they told me that he was to have his way about it,
an' she was to go to college that very fall.
She did go in less'n a month to a prep-school clear down East. A
prep-school is a sort of a calf college, you know; an' she had to train
there a solid year before they had the nerve to turn her loose on a
full-grown university. But she had a head on her, Barbie had; an' when
she got squared away, she made 'em all get down an' scratch. They do
say that she put more life an' vim in that institution than anybody
what had ever give it a work-out before.
Ol' Cast Steel went down twice the first winter, an' never let her know
'at he was in the neighborhood, for fear it would make her think 'at he
was pinin' for her. He just went down there an' bought some store
clothes an' prowled around waitin' for the chance to see her at a
distance--never even lined out the professors to see if they were doin'
their duty, nor mixed in the game the slightest bit. Talk about bein'
game? I reckon that puts a shadow on anything ever that man had to face.
She used to come back every summer, bringin' a lot of chums an' all
kinds o' pets with her. She was just daffy over any kind of a wild
animal from an Injun papoose to a white mouse; an' when she'd go back
in the fall, Jabez had his hands full with parrots an' alligators an'
butterfly coons an' sech--to say nothin' of a lot of potted flowers
what was mighty notionable in their tastes.
I was so busy tendin' to this branch o' the outfit that about all the
ridin' I did was for exercise--yes, an' for company, 'cause it allus
seemed as if she was along when I'd be out on the range. Then, again, I
allus felt a kind of drawin', myself, to the silent people, who think
an' wish an' feel, just the same as we do, but aren't able to handle
our langwidge. I got so I could purt' nigh tell what an animal had on
his mind, just from tendin' to her speciments.
She had one speciment which was a possom, an' the blame thing bit me
eight times one winter, me tryin' to give it baths--an' then she wrote
back home that the doggone critter didn't need'em nohow. She purt'nigh
got expended for takin' a rattlesnake back to the university an'
keepin' it hid in her room; an' after I'd had a deuce of a time
catchin' 'em, they made her send a bob-cat an' a mountain lion to some
kind of a garden--wouldn't let her keep 'em at all. The professors
allus was a sore trial to her, but once she began a thing she allus
fought it through, so she put up with 'em the best way she could.
She used to tell us that bein' housed up like to 'a' drove her crazy at
first, an' they was so tarnation fussy that she felt like a hobbled
pony in a stampede. They wouldn't even let her picket her ponies out in
what they call the campus, which she said was just drippin' fat with
rich grass, an' nary a hoof to graze it. Why, they even had fool
notions about havin' certain hours about goin' to bed, an' even when
you had to put your lights out.
One night she got fidgety an' nervous with the lonesomeness of it, an'
she got up about one o'clock an' fired her revolvers out the
window,--just for sport, you know, like a feller sometimes will when
he's--well, when his soul gets kind o' itchy like,--an' it purt' nigh
started a riot. She said 'at we wouldn't never believe how different
the people was down there. I reckon a university must be run a good bit
like a penitentiary. But as I said, she wasn't no quitter, an' I
reckon, takin' it all in all, she give 'em back about as good as they
sent.
Course we could see a lot o' change in her when she'd first come back,
but it seemed to slide off as the tan came on, an' by the time she left
in the fall again she'd be purty much the same old Barbie. She went
full five years, countin' the prep-school, an' I don't suppose they was
much in the way o' learnin' they didn't filter through her; but it
didn't spoil her, an' the very moment her knees clamped on a pony again
you could see that her blood was as red as ever, even if her face was
roses an' cream. My heart allus beat out of time when I knew she was
headin' back; but the very minute she gave my hand the old-time grip I
knew she was still the old-time girl, an' when she'd turn to the chums
an' say, "Girls, this is Happy," why, I was big brother to the lot, an'
before they went back I'd teach 'em ridin' till they could giggle on
hoss-back without fallin' off. They all owned up that she was the
takin'est girl at the university, and while her pals was a mighty
attractive lot, they didn't have to use any arguments to convince me it
was the truth.
She allus left me so much to do when she was away that I never felt
like leavin' through the winter; while durin' vacation time I wouldn't
have gone without bein' drove; but toward the middle of her fourth
year, me an' Bill Andrews had another little run in.
We was havin' a terrible streak of weather, an' Bill wanted to move a
herd over to the southwest corner of the ranch where the' was some
extra good bunch grass. It was a wise move all right, an' I said so;
but when he wanted me to help trail 'em, I vetoed it. I was watchin' up
some experiments with silkworms an' I didn't want to leave 'em. We were
short-handed an' Jabez 'lowed 'at I'd better go. Well, we argued back
an' forth until he finally said that he could take full care o' the
silkworms, an' intimated that my work with 'em wasn't much but pastime,
anyway.
That settled it with me. I helped drive the herd, an' it was the
bitterest weather we'd ever had. The sleet blew in the cow's faces an'
it was simply one long fight. Three o' the boys gave up an' pulled back
to the ranch house, but not me. I don't believe I slept on that drive,
night or day, an' when, the boys finally told Bill Andrews that it
couldn't be done, I told 'em that it could, an' that if any more of
'ern dropped out I'd count it a personal insult. We got 'em there all
right, an' then I rode back to the ranch house.
Jabez had let the silkworms die--an' I told him what I thought of him,
an' pulled out. It was cold weather an' I was travelin' on foot, but it
wasn't cold I was suffer in' from, it was heat.