"That's all right!" said the smiling brother. "There's no use in wasting words on him. He has had fair warning, and I'm not to blame."
It struck me that the best thing I could do was to shake hands with the wrathful foreman, and I did it very heartily.
"He will think differently some day, and you will have a good wife, Tom," I said. "We'll miss you both badly at Crane Valley, but must try to give you a good start off when you take up your preëmpted land."
It must be recorded that henceforward Sally was a model of virtue, so much so that I marveled, while at times her brother appeared to find it hard to conceal his astonishment. She was more subdued in manner and gentle in speech, while I could now understand the soft light which filled her eyes when they rested upon my foreman. The former spirit, however, still lurked within her, for returning to the house one evening when spring had come around again, I saw Cotton, who had once been a favorite of hers, leap out of the door with a brush whirling through the air close behind him.
"What is the meaning of this, Cotton?" I asked sharply, and the corporal, who looked slightly sheepish, glanced over his shoulder as though expecting another missile.
"The truth is that I don't quite know," he said. "Perhaps Miss Steel is suffering from a bad toothache or something of the kind to-day."
"That does not satisfy me," I said, as severely as I could, hoping he would not discover it was mischief which prompted me. "I presume my housekeeper did not eject you without some reason?"
"Why don't you ask her, then?" said Cotton awkwardly. "Still, I suppose an explanation is due to you if you insist on it. I went in to talk to Sally while I waited for you, and said something—perfectly innocent, I assure you, about—— Well—confound it—if I did say I'd been heartbroken ever since I saw her last, was that any reason why she should hurl a brush at me? She used to appreciate that kind of foolery."
"Circumstances alter cases," I said dryly. "Don't you know that Sally will leave here as Mrs. Thorn in a few weeks or so?"
"On my word of honor, I didn't," and Cotton laughed boyishly. "Go in and make my peace with her, if you can. I am positively frightened to. Say I'm deeply contrite and—confoundedly hungry."