"If it ain't true," says he, "it may be before long."
"Why, Colonel Wright," says she, looking at him with her eyes wide open—and when she looked at you thataway couldn't no man help liking her—"I wisht you wouldn't do that, sir—please!" says she.
"Why not?" says he.
"Well," says she, "because."
He turns around and throws up both hands. He never said another word about it after that. But after a while the calvary regiment went somewheres else—on some more land he had bought, so it turned out. Nobody knew what changed his mind. It was Katherine, the first girl friend that Bonnie Bell had had in the city.
You see, Katherine used to come to our house regular now; her and Bonnie Bell was right thick together. One time Katherine come in quite excited.
"My brother Tom's coming back next week," says she. "Ain't that fine?"
"Is that so?" says Bonnie Bell. "I'd like to see him."
"Tom's going to live with us," says Katherine, "and be in the office downtown—unless he gets married, or something of that kind. I wisht he would. Now I wisht he would get engaged. I'd like to see how he'd act. You can't guess what I'd like!"
"No," says Bonnie Bell; "I can't."