“Please help us, sir,” pleaded Dorothy again.
“I shore will, Miss,” declared the cowboy. “But yuh did tee-totally sup-prise me—yes, Ma’am!”
Tavia began to giggle. “I guess you’re not used to meeting ladies around here?” she questioned, saucily.
“Jerusha Juniper! I reckon we ain’t; not around here.”
“I didn’t know, for sure,” said the wicked Tavia; “hearing you take a lady’s name in vain so frequently, you know. Is she a friend of yours?”
“Who, Ma’am?” asked the puzzled cowboy, while Dorothy tugged at Tavia’s sleeve.
“‘Miss Jerusha Juniper’—or is she a ‘Mrs.’?”
The man laughed heartily at that and urged his pony nearer to the two girls.
“We see so few females out here we hafter talk about ’em, and name critters after ’em, and all that.”
“I see,” said Tavia, quite assured of herself now.