Page:Caroline Lockhart--The full of the Moon.djvu/110

 was a neighbor of ours in Texas, and we wagoned here together. Spiser sent us both word not to settle, but we settled just the same and each of us got a little bunch of cattle together. For some reason he's offered to buy me out, at his own price, but he aims to scare John out of the country, and this is the start." Blakely's voice was bitter.

"Now, Charlie, why don't you take Spiser's offer up?" Mrs. Blakely advanced, pleadingly, with a long-handled spoon. "We-all have been here two year, and I'm gittin' restless. Let's hitch up the ol' white team and wagon it up into Arkansaw. I'm pinin' to travel," declared Mrs. Blakely plaintively, "to see the world agin—and Arkansaw!"

"I'm not," Blakely replied grimly. "I've had enough malaria to hold me for a while—and wagonin' too."

One does not start the water from a faucet with more ease than Mrs. Blakely turned on the tears.

"Now, Charlie"—she settled into her hips in an attitude of despair—"you'll go and git yoahself killed off, then I'll have to take in