Page:Morley roberts--Painted Rock.djvu/51

 Now, though he piped no more, the whole world danced through his tears.

"I'm derned sorry for the ole man," whimpered his son; "he ain't had no circus of a life. Things was tough back East, so Maw used to let on, and here they was tough, and then she died. He ain't bin the same sence, but more fierce and contrairy; and he gets full three to one for what he done when Maw was alive. I dew wish I'd hed the savvy to go in with him. But he'd never ha' let me."

At sundown he corralled the sheep and their lambs in a straggling mesquite corral against the raids of coyotes, and went back to the shanty. He cooked a mess of flour and a bit of bacon, and ate his supper very soberly, washing it down with a drink from the creek. Then he sat outside on an upturned keg which had once held nails, and played a little more as the night came on. The stars broke out in the east and then they shone over him, and the west was blue at last as the moon rose in the east. The solace of the time was upon him, and for a little while his heart was easier.