The man opened his mouth and closed it.Then he said,It's a book.Did you ever read it before?
This is the third time I've read it.
Seems as it hasn't accomplished no good on you,as you still tell lies.
The man rose abruptly,and laid the book on the seat.His manner was quite as discouraging as it had been from the start.
Honey,interposed Willock,that ain't to say a lie,not a real lie.IS it a hand-organ?Lahoma demanded sternly.
In a manner of speaking,honey,it is a hand-organ in the sense of shutting you off from asking questions.You learn to distinguish the sauces of speech as you gets older.Out in the big world,people don't say this or that according as it is,they steeps their words in a sauce as suits the digestion.Don't be so quick to call 'LIES!'till you learns the flavor of a fellow's meaning,not by his words but by the sauce he steeps 'em in.
Don't get mad at me,said Lahoma to the trapper.I don't know nothing,never having captured and branded the thoughts that is caged up in books.But I want to be civilized and I am investigating according.
The trapper,somewhat conciliated,reseated himself.He regarded the girl with greater interest,not without a certain approval.How comes it that you aren't civilized,living with such a knowing specimen as your own father?
My father's dead.Brick is my cousin,but I not knowing nothing of him till he saved my life two years ago and after that,me with the Indians and him all alone.Would you like to hear about it?
I wouldn't bother him,honey,with all that long story,interposed Willock,suddenly grown restive.
Yes,tell me,said the trapper,moving over that she might find room on the block of wood beside him.
Lahoma seated herself eagerly and looking up into the other's face,which softened more and more under her fearless gaze,she said:
We was crossing the plains--father,mother and me,in a big wagon.And men dressed up like Indians,they come whooping and shooting,and father turns around and drives with all his might--drives clear to yonder mountain.And mother dies,being that sick before,and the jolting too much for her.So father takes me on his horse and rides all night,and I all asleep.Well,those same men dressed like Indians,they was in a cabin 'way up north,and had put their wigs and feathers off and was gambling over what they stole from the other wagons.So father,he sees the light from the window and rides up with me.And they takes him for a spy and says they,in a voice awful fierce,just this way--'KILL 'EM BOTH!'
The trapper gave a start at the explosiveness of her tone.
Lahoma shouted again,as harshly as she could,'Kill 'em both,'says they.Then she turned to Willock.Did I put them words in the correct sauce,Brick?
You done noble,honey.
Lahoma resumed:Now it was in a manner of happening that Brick,he was riding around to have a look at the country,and when he rides up to the cabin,why,right outside there was me and father,and two of the robbers about to kill us.'What are you devils up to?'says Brick.'You go to hell,'says the leading man,'that's where we're going to send this spy and his little girl,'says he;'you go to hell and maybe you'll meet 'em there,'he says.And with that he ups and shoots at Brick,the bullet lifting his hat right off his head and scaring the horse out from under him,so he falls right there at the feet of them two robber-men,on his back.Brick,he never harmed nobody before in his life,but what was he to do?He might of let them kill him,but that would of left father and me in their grip,so he just grabs the gun out of the leading man's hand,as he hadn't ever carried a gun in his life his own self,and he shot both them robbers,him still laying there on his back--
No,honey,I got up about that time.
Brick,you told me you was still laying there on your back just as you fell.
Did I,honey,well,I reckon I was,then,for when I told you about it,it was more recent.
It's awful interesting,the trapper remarked dryly.
Yes,ain't it!Lahoma glowed.Then father jumped on one horse with me,and Brick put out on another,and when I woke up,the Indians were all everywhere,but Brick come here and lived all alone and nearly died because he didn't have me to comfort him.So the Indians took me and they killed father,and for two years I was moved from village to village till Red Feather brought me to Brick.And then we found out we are cousins and he is going to civilize me.Brick,he remembers about a cousin of his,Cousin Martha Willock,her sister went driving out to the Oklahoma country with her husband and little girl and wasn't never heard of.I am the little girl,all right,and Brick he's my second cousin.And wasn't it lucky Brick was riding around that night,looking at the country,when they was about to put daylight into me?
I'd think,remarked the trapper,that he'd take you back to your Cousin Martha,for men-folks like him and me aren't placed to take care of women-folks.
Yes,but he got a letter saying my Cousin Martha and all her family is done been swept away by a flood of the Mississippi River,and him and me is all they is left of the Willockses,so we got to stick together.Besides,you see,he killed them two robbers,and the rest of the gang is laying for him;Brick,he feels so dreadful,he never having so much as put a scratch to a man's face before,for he wouldn't never fight as a boy,his conscience wouldn't rest if he was in civilization.He'd go right up to the first policeman he met and say,'I done the deed.Carry me to the pen!'he'd say,and then what would become of me?
He might get another letter from your Cousin Martha to help him out of the scrape.
Lahoma stared at him,unable to grasp the significance of these foolish words,and Brick,seeking a diversion,explained his purpose of taking Lahoma to the settlements after supplies,and proffered his petition that Bill Atkins accompany them.
