Happy Hawkins

LE

no great mathematician when you got above fractions, an' I was some particular in what I read; but if I 'd been minded that way, I reckon I could have waded through purty much a

ack. Same with the Injun kids; they was up on edge to learn until they got to schoolin' 'em, then they fought again it just like the white kids. The reason is that we make children learn things they ain't curious about. I bet if y

to the foothills, an' after we'd built our fire, like we allus did, no matter how hot it was, she lay there rollin' cigarettes for me to s

." It allus used to fret her to think 'at the' wasn't nothing she could do to make her a boy, an' she tried to even up by plannin' to herself what she'd have done if so be she had been a boy. We ta

ich had been broke before it was opened. The' had been a name on the outside, but it had been rubbed out. Inside at the beginning was the name "Rose Cottage, San F

ttes in, an' one day Daddy left the attic door open an' I went in. The' was just a dandy chest there an' he had left the key in it. I ope

e to the attic, too," sez I. She flushed again. "If a person don't

d at her, little and slim an' purty as a picture, you couldn't help but wonder if she hadn't got her soul changed off with some one else, like what they say the Chinese bel

you?" I sez, gett

read it, an' I wisht

oin' to read

a coward,

for the cowards the' would be a heap

k the letter an' holdin' it open in her hand. "If

you ought to do is to tell your Dad that you have the

ed into my eyes an' laughed. "I'll dare you to,

, so I said serious, "Well, wha

und with that cane, that he thinks he has lost the key to the chest. He goes around grumblin

sin'," sez I. "What are y

ind not to hunt through the chest-I'm goin' to slip the key

eat your own father

I whopped those two girls over at school last winter, an' I never told even you. I whopped 'em 'cause they said I never had a mother. Everything has to have a mother, even a snake, an' I had one too. Why don't he tell me about her? Why does he allus

might, if I'd had the sense of a hoss, have known that this was what made her o

tell about her,

ain't got the sand to read it, an'

, an' that she hadn't never been able to tell whether it was Jack or him she was most in love with until Jack had asked her, an' then after Jack had deceived her an' he had been so kind, she found out 'at he was the one she had loved the most al

he was out of his head-about George Jordan an' Jack Whitman, an' the Creole Belle. I knew 'at Barbie was study

ole Bell?" sez I. "She ain't

h an' Spanish blood who lives in New Orleans,

So Jabez had been in a scrape with some cross-breed woman, an' he an' this

s a lot o' wickedness in this

"Do you reckon I could knock around this ranch the way I have an' not know nothin' e

; but I do know 'at lots of the things you think you know ain't so, if you picked it up from the

That's the way from one end to the other; somebody else says somethin' an' I ought to be ashamed 'cause I ain't t

I ain't your teacher. If you want to know things you ask Melisse. If you don't put a curb on yourself I'm goin' to fl

, I'm goin' to find it out some way or other-I'm going to find out everything I want to know before I'm done. I love my

osin' you nose around an' discover it-who'd be the one 'at played un-fair then? You're powerful young yet; you're a heap younger'n you realize, an' you can't kno

ldn't hurt him for the world; but I think I'm old enough to know, an' I'm goin' to ask him. If he won't tell me now

r-well some day; but if I was you, I'd put back the letter an' I'd not think about it any more'n I could help. Supp

een men in Gore Gulch, an' didn't I think it wa

to read about Claud myself, but I wouldn't wan

man oncet your

n?"

' the Brophy gang with the

't be prov

she. "If that's all you think

what store he sets on keepin' his word,-would you be glad to know 'at you had made him break

most beautiful woman in the world-" She sat there with her eyes flashin', but I didn't want to let her ma

said, thinkin' aloud. "But Barbara certainly did have something to do with me, an' I wis

er back an' try to for

I'll slip it into his pocket, an' I won't pester him about it-now;

ind it all out I'll tell y

is letter to Daddy, until I let you

rd about that until y

house," she said, with her lip stiff again.

s Starlight beat on tu

d on the subject again; but she hid it most too careful, and Jabez saw the' was somethin' on her mind. "Have yo

he noticed it. "What is she stud

what that child is st

ime-fact is, about all you do

in't a question o' work. If you amuse her you're worth more to me'n any

asked he

in' you,

's on her mind, an' I don't propose to guess; and if I did know, I wouldn't tell unless she told me

ulls himself down an' sez, "Now look here, Happy, the

sez I; "but what have

an' if it ain't somethin' fit, you can tell her so; because if it comes

adn't yo

mighty hard to answer some of her questions,

what's on her mind

while, an' then he se

d she sa

, an' said, 'Do you want me to a

d you sa

rbara, if it is someth

ez, after w

different from other folks, an' there bein' so many things 'at they wasn't fit to know; an' finally she sa

d you sa

looked before, and after a minute I sez, 'No, Barbara, I don't think you had better ask

; you wilted under fire, an' she hates a coward as

know 'em yet." He stopped, an' his face grew hard as stone when he went on. "But the' 's some things that she never can

ve to do; but you tell me what kind o' things there are tha

the money line that you think I owe you, why, name it an' it's yours; but you can see for yourself that we can't go on this way. I haven't asked you to do anything unreasonable and you have refused point blank. I don't in

sez I; "but you don't own t

l have to be like the other men from this on. You've been like one of the family so long 'at we

bie. That was the hard part of it. She didn't cry when I told her I was goin'-that would 'a' been too girlish-like for her; she just breathed hard an' jerky for a couple o' minutes while we looked in opposite directions, an' then

I said, "but I'll sure

be true to you, all the time you

ather right. You've let him see that you're w

"I try to be contented, but I get tired o' bein'

wice as lonesome as you are, and he's been through a heap of trouble sometime. You miss the mother that you never did see, bu

e, "I'll do the best I can-but you'll com

k my stuff off him, picked out a tough little mustang from the home herd, shook hands with her again, an' started. I glanced up toward old Savage, and she read my thoughts. "I'll take flowers to him