“I sometimes regret it. Jessica is a child of impulsive, yet absorbing affections. She can see no flaw in the character of anybody she loves; and––well, none of us are perfect, and Ephraim grows old.”
Still, when he entered, the lady greeted him with cordiality, and served him promptly; and presently they were all talking eagerly of the recent events at Sobrante. Of course, Pedro came in for a brief but loving mention; and to the guest’s inquiry as to what had been done with the fine flock of sheep which the old man had herded, the mistress replied:
“I have sent them up into the mountains, with the herds of a neighbor, for the present. Ephraim, 165 here, petitioned for the post of shepherd, but I dared not give it to him,” and she looked deprecatingly toward the sharpshooter.
“No, she didn’t,” assented he. “She could trust that Old Century, but she couldn’t trust me.”
There was greater bitterness in the tone than he had ever manifested before his small captain, and she was quick to notice and resent it.
“Look here, you blessed old grumbler, you stop that, please. If not ‘please,’ stop it anyway, because I’m your commander. You know why, and only why, my mother said ‘no’ to that bright scheme of yours.” Then she explained to Ninian, who was listening closely: “You must understand that shepherding is the very loneliest thing that has to be done on a ranch. The shepherd is alone from week to week; on some ranches from month to month. He hasn’t a soul to speak to save when somebody chances to cross his field, which isn’t often. A lot of men go crazy, living that way, and mother has always been afraid for even Pedro. I never was for him, though, ’cause he always liked it and had lived so––well, forever. But naughty old ‘Forty-niner’ felt it would be his ‘duty’ to go up there away from all of us, and mother wouldn’t let him, and so–––”
“And so, my honored captain, you’ll force me to be a mere hanger-on and idler.”
Jessica held up her forefinger, warningly. “That’s enough, Ephraim. I am ‘She that must be obeyed,’ Samson says, sometimes. And one of the times is now. If you and mother aren’t ashamed to disagree before my dear Mr. Sharp, I’m ashamed to have you!”
All laughed and none took offense at this plain talk which, jesting though it seemed, covered a 166 serious meaning, and soon “Forty-niner” remarked, as if to close the subject:
“Well, all’s said and done; yet, still, I know if I’d been let to have my way in this I’d have stopped a deal of mischief. It would be better, seems to me, to have an old frontiersman living in Pedro’s cabin than a spook.”