Big Chief began to stir about his bed as soon as she went away. He raised his head and glanced at the adorable Lady Moon who was showing him a round disapproving face. Then he sat up in bed.
Hearing a noise, he snuggled down again under the bedclothes.
I stood for another half hour. Then he slipped quietly to his room, threw on his clothes and tiptoeing to the veranda cast a wistful eye toward his parents' room. He did not dare to look in, lest his watchful mother should see him.
I heard him choke back a sob as he stretched out a hand to pat the wondering Barklo, who raised his head from the foot of Big Wig's bed where he lay so comfortably, occasionally glancing at the lamb who slept on the lawn to be near him.
I forgot to say that Mrs. Devering had kindly invited the Widow Detover to visit her until her son came back from some mines in the north.
Now my place was in the stables, and I crept up cautiously by a roundabout way.
There was no Drunkard now careering about in his painstaking manner. His leg bones were slow in uniting and he was still confined to his quarters on the veranda.
Girlie however was on the lookout and as soon as she heard my wary footfalls outside the barn cellar she was beside me.
"All right, old girl," I said, "Barklo's watching. I'm just going to have a little race with old Father Time."