Have been hearing fine things about the way things are being run along modern lines on the Three Star. More power to you.
Good stock _always_ pays.
Sandy filed the letter. There was a room in the ranch-house that was now fitted up as an office, known to the riders of the Three Star as the "Old Man"s Room." Sandy had even contemplated a typewriter, but given it up for the time being after talking it over.
"I don"t believe I c"ud ever learn to ride one of those contraptions,"
he said. "I tried it once an" the wires bucked my fingers off reg"lar.
But I sure hate writin" longhand."
"Why not import one of them stenographers?" suggested Mormon.
"Sure," jeered Sam. "Why not? Then you c"ud put in yore spare moments gentlin" a hawss fo" her an" pickin" wild flowers, until Mirandy Bailey persuades her the climate is too chilly. But I"ll bet Molly c"ud handle that end of it prime, if she was back."
"I w"udn"t wonder," said Sandy.
There was a lot of interjected talk about what Molly might say or do.
With the founding of the Three Star Ranch the lives of the partners had changed a good deal. They held responsibilities, they owned a home and they lived there. None of them, since they were children, had ever known the close companionship of a young girl. Mormon"s matrimonial adventures had been foredoomed shipwrecks on the sands of time, his wives marital pirates preying on his good nature and earnings. Molly had leavened their existences in a way that two of them hardly suspected and the yeast of affection was still working. Each hung to the hope that she might return to the ranch again to stay and each felt that hope was a faint one.
When, at last, there came the news, from Molly herself and from Mrs.
Keith, that Keith was coming out to make inspection of his Casey Town properties, that he was traveling in a private car with his son, with Molly and her governess-companion, and that the two latter would get off at Hereford for a visit to the Three Star, Sandy went about with a whistle, Sam breathed sanguine melodies through the harmonica and Mormon beamed all over. The illumination was apparent. Sam told him he looked "all lit up, like a Chinee lantern" and Mormon beamed the more.
Molly"s letter was primed with delight. Mrs. Keith"s contained regrets that her physicians did not think the journey would be best for her to undertake in the present state of her health, which meant that she feared possible discomforts en route and imagined the ranch as a place where one was fed only on beans, sourdough bread, bull meat and indifferent coffee.
"You will find Miss Nicholson most efficient and amenable,"
she penned. "She has done remarkably well with your ward. I believe my husband expects to stay in your vicinity about a month and we have decided to make a holiday of it for Molly, so far as lessons are concerned. She can resume her studies on her return to New York. I regret exceedingly not being able to make your personal acquaintance. But, if ever you come east, we shall hope to see something of you."
Miranda Bailey sniffed at this letter openly.
"I hope they ain"t spiled the child," she said. "I wonder what"s the matter with the Nicholson teacher woman?"
"What do you mean?" asked Mormon.
"She says she"s amenable. I ain"t sure of the word, but I believe that means thin-blooded or underfed. My sister"s niece by marriage was that way till they fed her cod-liver oil an" sc.r.a.ped beef. "Pears to me as if all the companions an" governesses was that kind of folk. I suppose they hire out cheaper account of not bein" overstrong."
"You can search me," answered Mormon. "Ask Sandy, he"s browsin" through the dikshunary reg"lar these days. Gettin" so it"s hard to sabe half he tells you."
Sandy had to look up the word. "Liable to make answer," he read out.
"One of the snippy kind, back-talkin" an" peevish," said Miranda. "I can"t bear "em."
"That"s the legal meaning," said Sandy. "I reckon this is it--submissive."
"Halter-broke. That"s more likely. That"s the kind that Keith party w"ud pick. I ain"t ever seen her nor don"t hope nor expect to, but that"s the kind she"d pick. No backbone. Molly"ll twist her round her little finger. Wonder how old she is?"
"The word you meant was anemic, Miss Mirandy," said Sandy, turning a leaf in the dictionary. "They sound about the same."
"There"s too many words anyway," she replied. "Folks don"t use mo"n a hundredth part of "em an" git along first-rate. I don"t see why they print "em." Miranda did not show to the best advantage during the rest of her visit. She snubbed Mormon severely when he offered to get water for her car. "I"ve fetched an" carried for myself long enough not to want to be waited on," she said. "An" I don"t need water anyway." She drove off and had to bail from an irrigating ditch before she was half-way to her destination. Whereupon she took herself to task.
"Miranda Bailey, there"s no fool like an old fool," she said aloud, with sage-brush and timid prairie dogs for audience. "What you want to do is to keep sweet. Now git on." The final adjuration was to her car, to which she always spoke exactly as if it was a horse.
"What do you suppose made her so cantankerous?" Mormon inquired after she had driven round the corral. "Reckon you got her sore bawlin" her out about usin" the wrong word, Sandy. A woman"s sensitive about them things."
Sam smote Mormon between the shoulders before Sandy could make answer.
"Fo" a man who"s had yore experience, you"re deef, blind, dumb an" lost to all sense of touch or motion," he shouted. "Remember what I said about the stenographer? Mirandy"s jealous of the Nicholson woman. Plumb jealous! You better wear blinders while she"s here, Mormon. If she"s a good-looker, Gawd help you! Mirandy won"t."
CHAPTER XVI
EAST AND WEST
When Miranda Bailey heard the news she announced her determination of coming over to the Three Star to prepare for the visitors.
"I reckon my reputation"ll stand it," she said, "seein" I"m older than two of you an" the third is still a married man. That spineless governess"ll be writin" back to the Keith woman about everything she sees, eats, sits or sleeps on. Pedro"s cookin" is enough to give any easterner dyspepsy. The whole house wants reddin" up, it ain"t been swept proper fo" a year."
Abashed, the partners gave her full sway. They lived on the porch in their spare waking moments, they ate cold victuals, and the lives of Pedro and Joe were made miserable. But the ranch-house was scoured from top to bottom. Miranda"s car brought over curtains for the windows, flowers for the window-sills, odds and ends that made the place look homely, cheerful, inviting. Pedro was given lessons at the stove that he at first took sulkily but, being praised and his wages raised, took pride in.
"He"ll do," vouchsafed Miranda at last, the evening before the arrival.
"He"s no hand at cookies or doughnuts an" never will be, but I"ll bring them over from time to time. He can make a pie an" biscuit an" he can broil meat. I"ve taught him to mash his pertaters with milk "stead of water an" to put b.u.t.ter in his hot cakes. I"m stayin" over till supper ter-morrer to see everything has a good staht."
"She"s stayin" over to git a good look at the Nicholson party," Sam said to Mormon. "All this ain"t jest for Molly."
"There"s nothin" between Miss Mirandy an" myse"f," replied Mormon with dignity. "She"s a wonderful housekeeper."
"She sure is. Me, I"m so I"m afeard to come into my own house, it"s so golderned clean. If that third wife of yor"n...."
The long-suffering Mormon turned upon his partner. They were seated on the broad top rail of the breaking corral, waiting the call to supper.
Mormon clutched Sam by his collar and jerked him off the rail, catching the slack cloth of his pants at the seat, holding him firmly gripped and bending him across his padded lap. Despite Sam"s kicks and squirms, he paddled him unmercifully and then dropped him sprawling into the corral.
"I ain"t done that to you, Sam Manning," he said sternly, "fo" five-six years. An" you"ve got too all-fired fresh. Nex" time I"ll do it in front of Mirandy, you ornery, bow-laiged, hornin"-in son of a lizard."
Sam said nothing. His face, as he stooped somewhat painfully, was fiery red. He took hold of a post to help himself up, pretending disability.
On the post a horsehair lariat hung from the snub of a lopped-off bough of the tree that made the heavy stake. He fumbled with this while Mormon shook with laughter like a great jelly. The next moment the lariat came flying, circling, settled down over Mormon"s head, over his body and arms. Sam, working like a jumping-jack, took a quick turn, flung a coil about Mormon"s legs and in a few seconds, had him trussed helplessly to the rail.
"Paddle me, you overgrown buzzard, will you? There you roost till Mirandy comes to look for you."
Mormon pleaded and Sam pretended to be inflexible. At last they came to a capitulation. Mormon promised to keep his hands off Sam, and the latter vowed he would gibe no more about Mormon"s matrimonial affairs, past, present or future.
"An" don"t _look_ nothin", neither," added Mormon as Joe glided into sight and grunted his message.
"Grub piled. Squaw she say hurry."
For the life of him Sam could not resist a side glance of mirthful suggestion at Miranda"s tendency to issue orders. Mormon did not notice it.
"There"s room for five--supposed to be--in my car," said Miranda. "An"
there"s four of us an" six to come back. The other car"s in use. How we goin" to manage it?"