"Wal, I've be'n thinkin' o' that myself; but where'll we send her?"
"Oh, back to the States somewhere; Wisconsin or Minnesota—somewhere."
"Why not to Boomtown?"
"Well, I'll tell yeh, Ans. I've been hearing a good 'eal off an' on about the way we're bringin' her up here 'alone with two rough old codgers,' an' I jest want to give her a better chance than the Territory affords. I want her to git free of us and all like us, for a while; let her see something of the world. Besides, that business over in Belleplain to-day kind o' settled me. The plain facts are, Ans, the people are a little too free with her because she is growin' up here—"
"I know some fellers that won't be again."
"Well, they are beginnin' to wink an' nudge each other an' to say—"
"Go on! What do they say?"
"They say she's goin' to be a woman soon; that this fatherly business is bound to play out."
"I'd like to see anybody wink when I'm around. I'd smash 'em!" said Anson through his set teeth. "Why, she's our little babe," he broke out, as the full significance of the matter came to him. "My little un; I'm her ol' pap. Why—" He ended in despair. "It's none o' their darn business."
"There ain't no use o' howlin', Ans. You can't smash a whole neighborhood."