"So that's the way you act when I'm not here!" says she. "You ought to be ashamed of yourselves," says she. "I won't have any more of this." Their hired man set down now, right serious. He didn't laugh none nor try to pass it off. We all knew that it was a show-down, that it was a settlement, and that it had to go through. Old Man Wright he didn't seem to look at anyone but Bonnie Bell. If you can say a man can look hungry with his eyes, that's the way he looked then. By this time she was crying, and she puts her arms around his neck now. "Dad!" says she. "Pore old dad! Pore old foolish, unhappy dad!" Now she begins to kiss him some; but he can't talk none--only pats her shoulders. "I'm the wretchedest, wickedest girl on earth," says she to him, pushing back his hair, "and I'm the happiest too! Dad, listen to me. You mustn't sit in judgment. Don't take things so hard. Wait--try to see. Try to see if maybe there isn't some other will in the world besides your own, dad--maybe some will bigger than all of ours. I couldn't help it, dad--I couldn't! I'm so happy," says she, "so foolish happy now!" "Happy?" says he at last; and he pushes her away from him. "With him, there?" He nods now at the hired man, having got him placed. "What's he doing here?" says he. "Why shouldn't he be here?" says Old Man Wisner right then, speaking for the first time. "He's my son!" "_What's that?_" says Old Man Wright. "Your _son_!" "Shore!" says he. "Who'd you think he was? He can eat at my table. He's done well; he's married the best girl I ever seen!" says he. Then he gets so he can't talk worth a cent too. Shucks! I wisht I was most any place else. His son! How could his son be his hired man, and where was the hired man if this wasn't him? I felt myself begin to get sweaty on my face and all over. I'd been one awful fool, me. "Dave Wisner," says Old Man Wright, "I come acrost to settle things with you. Our account is some long. You've made it hard for me--awful hard!--when you made your hired man run off with my girl. Your son! What kind of talk is this? What do you mean?" "But he _is_ our son!" says Old Lady Wisner right then, her speaking for the first time. "In heaven's name, who did you _think_ he was? Hired man! What do you mean?" "It's what I been trying to tell you and Curly," says Bonnie Bell now, holding to her pa's coat with one hand and patting him hard on the shoulder with the other. "I told you it was all a mistake--everything was all mixed up. Except for Gawd's mercy sending me here right now, somebody might of been killed, for all I know," says she. "You men ain't got no more brains than a rabbit. It's time I come!" "Your _son_!" says Old Man Wright. "_Son!_ And Curly said he was your hired man!" Old Man Wisner laughs right out loud at that. "Hired man! Oh, I see how you thought that! You maybe seen him pottering around in the flowers like--he was always dotty about them things--but no hired man; he wasn't hardly worth a salary."