“Well, good-bye and good luck to you.”
“The same to you.” And they parted.
If Ira regretted his lack of courage in failing to be more outspoken, he did not show it, but rode away with a soldierly bearing which was Louisa’s admiration, and which made her more determined than ever to look to her own affairs, allowing no interference.
However, within the next few weeks this grew more and more difficult, for Jabez Manypenny made known his intentions and openly declared his desire to transfer Louisa to his own home. “Got a nice place,” he told her, “a heap better than this un where yer father keeps ye, and I’ve two or three niggers, too, to do the work fer ye, though there ain’t one among ’em can come up to you in cookin’ wittles.”
“My father’s place suits me well enough,” replied Louisa, “an’ I’m able to work for myself and him, too. I don’t want no niggers to wait on me, lazy triflin’ things, that give ye more trouble than they’re worth.” Jabez’ offer had no attractions for her. She felt it no advantage simply to exchange one old man for another, and saw little choice between the two, beyond the fact that her father possessed the claims of natural affection. She told him of the offer, adding, “I don’t want that old bag o’ bones. I’m in no hurry to leave you, dad.”
“’Course not,” he replied. “What’s the use of my giving ye up jest as I’ve got ye, onless it was wuth my while. If old Jabe comes ’round me I’ll tell him he ain’t goin’ to git my gal jest fer the astin’.”
Yet he pondered over the question. If he gave up Louisa it should be to some one who would make it an exchange to his advantage. He was not sure but that he could turn a pretty penny in the transaction. Just how, he could not at once decide, but it would surely be a queer thing, in that country where women were at a premium, if he could not dispose of his daughter’s hand to his own betterment, a girl whose accomplishments were such as appealed to every householder in the county.
He had been living very quietly since Louisa’s sojourn with him. He had been compelled to do this, he reflected, for she was too straightforward and honest to approve of any shady transactions, and, once he aroused her suspicions in any of his dealings, she would be direct enough, not only to charge him with them, but to report them. Yet this virtuous existence was growing monotonous. He was not sure but that he preferred the uncertainty of a reckless life with no one to answer to; there was at least excitement in it, and greater profits, if there were greater risks. The novelty of possessing a daughter was wearing off and the difficulties were beginning to present themselves. Marry her to the highest bidder and he could renew his old life and settle her future. And this was the way matters stood during that summer which saw Ira and Neal and John with the Texas Rangers, doing duty, while Jabez Manypenny paid court to Louisa and feared no rival.
One-legged Bud Haley kept Christine and Alison informed as to the movements in the neighborhood. As an enforced stay-at-home he performed a sort of detective service for the settlement, and little escaped his vigilant eye. Louisa’s affairs were of particular interest to him, since she had been a member of the Ross household and what concerned John Ross concerned Bud, who was under more than one obligation to his friend and nearest neighbor. Bud, likewise, championed Ira Korner’s cause and was indignant that Jabez Manypenny should receive the smallest attention at the hands of Louisa.
“’Tain’t fa’r,” he said to Alison. “Iry he’s off to the wars, an’ old Cy’s beginnin’ to nag Lou. Fust thing ye know the gal will be druv to takin’ Jabe jest to git rid of Cy. He’s a sly ole shark, is Cy, and I reckon he thinks ole Jabe ain’t got sich a ter’ble holt on life, an’ if he leaves Lou a well-to-do widder Cy kin step in an’ git all the profits. Fer my part, I don’t see what a ole man like thet’s going ter do with money; he kain’t more’n eat so much an’ he kain’t live in more’n one house, an’ he kain’t w’ar more clothes than he kin carry, but Cy has got a eetchin’ palm, as the sayin’ is, and they ain’t nothin’ he wouldn’t do fer money. He’d pick the eyes outen a blind mewl if he could sell ’em, an’ he’d chase a skeeter over a ten mile swamp fer its hide an’ taller. I’ve thought sometimes he kinder favored Pike Smith, but I don’t know. I’ve always heerd that him an’ Pike was in cohoots somehow, and Pike’s been a settin’ up ter Louisa, so I don’t know as Pike won’t git her if Jabe don’t, that is, if Cy has his way.”