The man arranged the lines carefully along the colt's back; then he took off his hat and wiped the top of his head on his sleeve, looking away from his mother with heavy, dull embarrassment.
"I expect you'd 'most forgot all about him," pursued the old woman, with a vague reproach in her tone.
"I hadn't much to forget," answered the man, resentment rising in his voice. "He hasn't troubled himself about me."
"Well, he didn't know anything about you, Jason, he went away so soon after we was married. It's a dreadful position to be placed in. It 'u'd be awfully embarrassing to—to the Moxom girls."
The man gave her a quick, curious glance. He had never heard her speak of his half-sisters in that way before.
"They're so kind of high-toned," she went on, "just as like as not they'd blame me. I'm sure I don't know what to do."
Jason kicked the soft earth with his sunburnt boot.
"Where is he?" he asked sullenly.
"In Californay."
"How'd you hear?"