"Think of his giving a hundred dollars for that drawing of 'Lon Pierce on the pinto, throwing a steer, and all that money for the others." "Serves him right!" Ben hissed this vindictively, having first reluctantly laid aside "Traps and Pitfalls." "Serves him dead right! That feller puts on a wise look that's about sixty-five years beyond his real age, as I'd cal'late it. I tell you, son, it sure takes all kinds o' fools to make a world." "But he said they were worth the money," Ewing pleaded. "He said I would do even better, some day." "Sure--_sure_ he said it! An' didn't he ask me if I had dyspepsia, an' did I sleep at night, an' I'd better remember to live an outdoor life of activity if I ever got that a-way. An' he thinks he's learned how to grain a deer hide after watching me do it three minutes, an' he's goin' to pick up a live skunk next chanct he gits, because I told him jest how to grab it. Oh, he _said_ things all right! He said a variety o' things!" He glared at Ewing as he rounded out this catalogue of follies. "I'm torn in two, Ben. I shan't be glad to leave here, and yet I'll be glad to go. I've dreamed it so long. It seems as if I'd dreamed it so hard I'd made it come true." "Always pin your money to the inside of your vest, like I told you," came the voice of warning. "I will, I will. But things _do_ happen, don't they? This is like a fairy tale." "Fairy tale!" The wise one uttered this with violent scorn. "Likely you was the sleepin' beauty, an' this here princess comes along with an alarm clock!" "Not a princess, Ben." He laughed boyishly. "She's a sure-enough queen." "Jest remember they's knaves in the deck. That's all _I_ ask." "You like her don't you?" Ben made an effort to be fair. "Well, I do an' then I don't. She's saddle stock, fur looks, that lady is, but she ain't serious. No, sir! When her eyes is on me I know as well's I want to she's snickerin' inside; makes no difference if her face does look like it was starched. You'll find, when all's said an' done, that she's plumb levitous, an' levitous folks is triflin'." "Have you seen how sorrowful she looks sometimes, a sort of glad-sorry, as if she felt sorry for herself and glad for other people? She makes me feel old when she looks that way--as if I must protect her." "Yes, an' other times she's stiffer'n Lot's wife!" "Other times she seems older than all the world, a woman who has always lived and always will." "Well, son, when you git put afoot there, you write on an' I'll manage to scare up a git-away stake fur you." "It's wonderful to think of going out into the world that _they_ knew, Ben--my father and mother. It seems as if they must be out there now, and that I'm going to meet them very quietly and naturally some day. I think it wouldn't astonish me." "Look a-here, Kid! That'll be about enough o' _that_! You go to bed." The other smiled a little wanly.