Page:Morley roberts--Painted Rock.djvu/249



Bill Higginson had the reputation of being very sudden, and there isn't the least doubt that he was sudden. He would be as sweet and mild as a southerly breeze in spring when the prairie begins to show what it can do in the way of flowers, and before any man could find out the shadow of a reason he was as bitter as a March norther with all his kindness curdled. In such cases he was apt to pull a gun on anyone, and it was only the fact that he was old, and as white-headed as young cotton, that he was not killed once a day at least.

Old Bill lived with his wife and daughter on a feeder of Double Mountain Creek, in the north-west of Texas.