"Sheets. When I came to go to bed—a real bed, Colonel, on legs—I found I was expected to sleep between sheets, and I just about fainted."
"That the only shock you had?"
"No, I had several. I saw an angel. I tell you straight, Colonel—you can bank on what I'm sayin'—that Jesuit outfit's all right."
"Oh, you think so?" The rejoinder came a little sharply.
"Yes, sir, I just do. I think I'd be bigoted not to admit it."
"So, you'll be thick as peas in a pod with the priests now?"
"Well, I'm the one that can afford to be. They won't convert me! And, from my point o' view, it don't matter what a man is s' long's he's a decent fella."
The Colonel's only answer was to plunge obliquely uphill.
"Say, Boss, wait for me."
The Colonel looked back. The Boy was holding on to a scrub willow that put up wiry twigs above the snow.