"I don't remember you sheddin' any tears when I left, an' I don't recall you beggin' me to hurry back," sez I. I was pleased at the way I was bein' received an' I meant to make him show his hand. "You know as well as I do that things allus go better on this ranch when you're here." "Yes," sez I. "An' you know 'at I don't like to beg no man to do anything; but you ought to see that I know that you're the usefullest man I ever had, an' you oughtn't to be so fly-uppity," sez he. "Now see here, Jabez," sez I, "you're one o' the kind o' men who never own up 'at a man was fit to live until after he's dead. You're like some o' these Easterners--they get so everlastin' entranced with the beautiful scenery that they forget to water their ridin' hosses. I don't ask no special favors, but I ain't so mortal thick-skinned myself, an' you ought to learn sometime that there is hosses 'at work better when they're not beat up an' yelled at." "Are you goin' to stay this time?" sez he. "As long as it's agreeable--all around," sez I. "Is everything goin' smooth?" The down-hearted look came into his eyes again. "She won't speak to me," sez he. "You don't mean to say 'at you've gone an' got married," sez I, "or that you are tryin' to?" "I ain't such a fool," he snaps. "It's Barbie, I mean." "How long has this been goin' on?" sez I. "This is the fourth meal," sez he; an' he was so solemn about it that I was some inclined to snicker, but then it flashed upon me that when I left, the child was all het up over the letter she'd found in the attic, and I sobered an' sez, "Is it something 'at's goin' to be hard to smooth over?" "I don't see how the deuce it's ever goin' to be smoothed over," sez Jabez, desperately. "Would you feel like sort o' hintin' what it was about?" sez I. "Well, it's about the way she acts," sez Jabez. "Confound it, Happy, she's the best gal child ever was on this earth, I reckon, but she don't want to be one, an' she won't act like it, an' she--she won't dress like it. Every time I argue with her she beats me to it, an' I'm plumb stumped. Yesterday I told her she had to take 'em off an' wear dresses, an' she did; but now she won't speak to me." "You mean that you said that she was never to argue with you again?" sez I, indignant. "No, I mean that I sez she must take those confounded buckskin pants off! She's big enough now to begin to train to become a woman--not a man." I had to grin a little, but even though it didn't seem as skeptical to me as it did to him, I saw he might be right about it. Still, I wasn't goin' to take sides without hearin' all the evidence, so I sez, "Is she healthy, Jabez?" "Healthy?" he sez. "Why, that child could winter through without shelter an' come out in the spring kickin' up her heels an' snortin'." "Well, that much is in her favor," sez I. "Is she good at her studies?"