"David," she continued, her voice now lowered, fluctuating with
anxiety, "you weren't reckoning on paying off them Hatburns? You
never?" She halted, gazing at him intently. "Why, they'd shoot you up
in no time! You are nothing but a--"
"You can call me a boy if you've a mind to," he interrupted; "and maybe
the Hatburns'll kill me--and maybe they won't. But there's no one can
hurt Allen like that and go plumb, sniggering free; not while I can
move and hold a gun."
"I saw a look to you that was right manlike a week or two back," she
replied; "and I said to myself: 'There's David growing up overnight.' I
favored it, too, though I didn't want to lose you that way so soon. And
only last night I said again: 'Thank God, David's a man in his heart,
for all his pretty cheeks!' I thought I could build on you, with me
getting old and Allen never taking a mortal step. Priest would give you
a place, and glad, in the store--the Kinemons are mighty good people. I
had it all fixed up like that, how we'd live here and pay regular.
"Oh, I didn't say nothing to your father when he started out--he was
too old to change; but I hoped you would be different. I hoped you
would forget your own feeling, and see Allen there on his back, and me
... getting along. You're all we got, David. It's no use, I reckon;
you'll go like Allen and Hunter, full up with your own pride and never
----" She broke off, gazing bitterly at her hands folded in her calico
lap.
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