Page:Caroline Lockhart--The Fighting Shepherdess.djvu/286

 and a patience that wasn't hardly human, even with folks. But when he did break loose — well, them that thought he was ' harmless ' and went too far on account of it never made the same mistake twice."

He continued with evident relish :

" That's where he fooled her — Isabelle — she didn't read him right. She thought he was ^ soft ' because she had her way with him."

" They were married, Pete? "

" Married, right enough — he never thought any other way about her. She was all-the-same angel to him," he grinned. She never was straight — we all knowed that but him, but she was slick, and she was swingin' her throwrope for him in about a week after they brought her in from the Middle West to teach the school in that district. Anybody that said a word ag'in' her to him would have gone to the hospital. So he went ahead and married her— while she laffed at him to his dwn hired men.

" If he'd worked her over with a quirt about onct a month, instead of wonderin' what he could do for her next, he might have had her yet.

" If he made a door-mat out of hisself before, it was worse after you come. He was the greatest hand for little things that ever I see — colts, kittens, calves, puppies and a baby! He walked the floor carrying you on a pillow for fear you'd break.

" It was too slow for Isabelle — that life — and only one man to fetch and carry for her. We used to make bets among ourselves as to how long 'twould last, and the short-time man won out. She liked 'em 'tough,' she said — no white-collared gents for her; and she got what she was lookin' for when she throwed in with Freighter Sam that hauled supplies from the railroad to the ranch.