Happy Hawkins

IAMON

r bonie fide Westerner an' when he dies he don't turn to dust, he turns to alkali; but when it

s about the time boys generally start out to hunt Injuns; but I kept on goin' t

a lunch counter back in Omaha. The third day I was there I was all alone in the front room when in walked an Injun. He was about eight feet high, I reckon; and the fiercest Injun I ever s

the matter, I acted on his advice and came farther West. That business experience lasted me a good long while. I don't like business an'

got to be friendly with your visitors to make 'em feel at home, an' then you got to get as much of their money as

ear for a man who hated me so he wouldn't speak to me; but I didn't care, I liked

id that way, and didn't have one single streak of bein' likeable. He was the only man I ever see who wouldn't talk to me. I was a noticing sort of a kid an' I saw mighty early that what wins the heart

ry subject I'd ever heard of; but he didn't even grunt. Just when things was clearin' off,

what I say about them," an'

min' an' analysin' until, after that year had been stored away to season, I discovered it was the best year I'd ever put in, an' while I h

time. When you start on again another feller ropes you with a new opinion, an' the first thing you know you are all cluttered up an' loaded down with other fellers' opinions, an' t

law! I wish I knew just half as much now as I thought I did then. My self respect was certainly a bulky article those days an' I wasn't in the habit of undervaluin' my own judgment-not to any great extent; but that habit o' study I'd formed with Spike was my balance wheel, an' I generally

share o' my business. If I detail you to sit in the shade an' count clouds, I don't want no argument, I want the clouds counted. When I don't specially express a hungerin' for any of your advice, that's the very time when you don't need to give any. Whenever you think you have a kick comin'

ime you could count on him acting up to his nature. He wa'n't no hypocrite, an' th''s a heap o' comfort jest in that. A feller ain't got no kick comin' when a rattler lands on him; but if a wood dove was to poison him, he'd have a fair right to be put out. The only child 'at Cast Steel had was one daughter; but that don't indicate that paternity was one long vacation for Jabez. Barbie-her full name was Barbara-was the sweetest an' the gamest an' the most surpriseable creatur

ld 'a' pestered the girl durin' that day, why the map-maker would sure have had a job on the day follerin'; 'caus

about their bein' speciments o' the Zelooic age or the Palazoric age or some such a fool thing. They was mostly heathens, an' it didn't do no good to spring the Bible on 'em-in fact after we got able to read their sig

had been under water, an' they'd take us out an' show us the signs; but we couldn't stomac

the same as I know the home herd, an' he didn't only know what they had done-he knew what they was a-goin' to do, an' when he called the turn on 'em, why they up an' done it. Comets an' eclipses an' sech like miracles were jest the sa

ez he to me one day after

eckon it will rai

piter has eight of 'em an' we ain't but one

ppen to be talk

t to have eight moons an' no one to enjoy 'em while my little girl jest

poverty, or anything else except in the way it applied to Barbie-

ight if perfectly convenient, but right or wrong, my child." Not on your future prospects! Jabez, he se

a dog or a pony he expects to keep a long time an' don't want to turn into a machine. He had told Barbie he didn't want her to ride nothin' 'at wasn't safe. Well, on the mornin' she became a six-year-ol

pony for her?" y

irthday an' she was tired of actin' like a k

won't hide ya!" sez Cast Steel, an' his

taught her how to ride, an' I ain't ashamed o' the job. She can give Spider K

d. Light an' easy she pulled the pinto up beside us an' calls out: "Oh, daddy, this is lovely, this is mag-ni-fi-cent"-the little scamp used to pick up b

y shied, whirled, an' purty nigh kicked his head off. He stood still in

get off?" asked Ja

d some temper those days, an' I hadn't got o

!" sez Jabez. I n

repeated, an' his voice

grass like an antelope. The pony never stirred. Ol' Jabez stood watchin' her with his eyes poppin

n' slips the bridle off his head. He just stands

ny," sez Cast

ur own men to

t when George hove in sight with his rope the pinto took to his heels an' made for the horiz

ed bear, "it's all your damned nonsense. Happy has

an by usin' such langwidge? I'll line y

hin' me to play seven up last week an' you said that everybody

an' then Jabez sez: "Go into the house, Barbara, an' we'll bo

like a colonel's. Just before she reached the house she turned an' calls: "You'll get the p

eel, "an' her only six. Kids oughtn't to

lls to play with an' they'll play like children, but start 'em out on cards an' ponies, an' r

, an' then he sez, "Are you g

tch it," sez I, r

w minutes longer an' then he sez

't know what you're a-referrin' to, b

you told me to git one o' my own m

it should be that any one feels called upon to go after my hide, I don't want to feel that the time I 'm wastin' in takin' care o' that hide rightfully belongs to another man w

ull-intellected thin-skin 'at ever drew down top wages for punchin' cows.

nothin' from you, ce

I'd try to argue any man on earth into workin' for me. I can get an army

out to a little glen in the foothills where I knew I 'd find him, an' as soon as I had to

l' man Judson stood there grittin' his teeth. "

the only pony

ake your pick out o' the

his ranch is what I

fool this side o' the big ditch. Here's your pay. You've been a fair hand, bu

ood man. I've done my work without fussin', an' you've seen me in a pinch or two; an' yet this very mornin' you intimated than I 'd risk Barbie on a pony she couldn't ride. The'

an' I 'm glad to be shut of you." Jabez handed me my pay an' stamp

with old Mount Savage standin' on guard back of 'em, an' the' was a bigger lump under my necktie than I generally wor

onal supervision-but then if my mother had lived I shouldn't never 'a' left home. I stood a stepmother six months out

well 'at there ain't none comin' to him, so he hides it by cuttin' up a little worse than usual but it's there, an' Gee! but it does rest heavy when it comes. Why, take me even now when the' wouldn't nothin' but

well out like an accordion, an' headed back to the valley trail. When I turned aroun

oin', are y

go, hone

er comin' bac

hoss with silver trimmed leather-an' what shall

the world"-yes, it was me she meant, only o' course that was some years ago an' the child was unthinkable you

an' natural this time. "Why, bless your h

iful lady she was, an' how happy they were togeth

u be true to me an' I'll be true to you,

e an' kissed her. "How did

last, "but I didn't want you to know it. She's over behind th

et in her lips, an' my own eyes were so hazy like that I couldn't se