She grew up tallish, like her pa, and slim and round, same as her ma.
She had brownish or yellowish hair, too, which was sunburned, for she
never wore no bonnet; but her eyes was like her ma's, which was dark and
not blue, though her skin was white like her pa's under his shirt
sleeves, only she never had no freckles the way her pa had--some was
large as nickels on him in places. She maybe had one freckle on her
nose, but little.
Bonnie Bell was a rider from the time she was a baby, like I said, and
she went into all the range work like she was built for it. Wild she
was, like a filly or yearling that kicks up its heels when the sun
shines and the wind blows. And pretty! Say, a new wagon with red wheels
and yellow trimmings ain't fit for to compare with her, not none at all!
When her ma died Old Man Wright wasn't good for much for a long time,
for he was always studying over something. Though he never talked a word
about her I allow that somehow or other after she died he kind of come
to the conclusion that maybe she hadn't been happy all the time, and he
got to thinking that maybe he'd been to blame for it somehow. After it
was too late, maybe, he seen that she couldn't never have grew to be no
range woman, no matter how long she lived.
But still we all got to take things, and he done so the best he could;
and after the kid begun to grow up he was happier. All the time he was
a-rolling up the range and the stock, till he was richer than anybody
you ever did see, though his clothes was just about the same. But, come
round the time when Bonnie Bell was fourteen or fifteen years old, about
proportionate like when a filly or heifer is a yearling or so, he begun
to study more.
There was a room up in the half-story where sometimes we kept things we
didn't need all the time--the fancy saddles and bridles and things. Some
old trunks was in it. I reckon maybe Old Man Wright went up there
sometimes when he didn't say nothing about it to nobody. Anyhow once I
went up there for something and I seen him setting on the floor,
something in his hand that he was looking at so steady he never heard
me. I don't know what it was--picture maybe, or letter; and his face was
different somehow--older like--so that he didn't seem like the same man.
You see, Old Man Wright was maybe soft like on the inside, like plenty
of us hard men are.
I crept out and felt right much to blame for seeing what I had, though I
didn't mean to. Seems like all my life I had been seeing or hearing
things I hadn't no business to--some folks never do things right. That's
me. I never told Old Man Wright about my seeing him there and he don't
know it yet. But it wasn't so long after that he come to me, and he
hadn't been shaved for four days, and he was looking kind of odd; and he
says to me:
"Curly, we're up against it for fair!" says he.
"Why, what's wrong, Colonel?" says I, for I seen something was wrong all
right.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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