339Jilly opened her mouth to wail. Then she suddenly changed her mind, climbed down, and going over to Huz began whispering vigorously into his ear. Her warm breath tickled Huz and he flopped his ear to drive away the annoying insect. Jilly beamed, calling joyfully to her mother: “Huz say ess, Mamma, Huz say ess.”
“But Jilly, Huz can’t talk.”
“He nod he’s ear, Mamma. Huz nod he’s ear.”
The unfortunate Huz went up into the chair once more.
Mrs. Morton glanced out the window where the March wind was whipping the bare branches of the cherry trees into mournful complaining. Eddying leaves fluttered from the heaps accumulated in fence corners or beneath the friendly shelter of the evergreens. A huge tumble weed went whirling down the road, passed on by each succeeding gust. In and out of the cedars, the robins were flying, prospecting for new nests. She pushed back her hair and sighed.
“It doesn’t seem possible that April is almost here. Ernest has been gone nearly a school year. I am beginning to realize that I sha’n’t see much more of my boy.”
“But, Mother Morton, he is doing so beautifully and he likes the life. You couldn’t keep him with 340you much longer, even if he were not in the academy. Besides, you still have Jane.”
Mrs. Morton sighed again.
“That is the worst of this ranch life. Jane is growing so fast I shall soon have to be sending her away to school. If we only lived some place where she could be right with me till she finished her education.”
“Oh, Mother Morton, I am glad she can’t. It is the best part of a girl’s education to go away from all the home coddling and have to rely upon herself. I wouldn’t give anything for what I learned by being away from family and friends, and having to exert myself to make people like me, instead of taking it for granted.”