Again suspicion quivered over Billy's face, and he dragged his horses angrily to the corral.
Lin nudged me, laughing. “I can rile him every time about Laramie,” said he, affectionately. “I wouldn't have believed the kid set so much store by me. Nor I didn't need to ask Jessamine to love him for my sake. What do yu' suppose? Before I'd got far as thinking of Billy at all—right after Edgeford, when my head was just a whirl of joy—Jessamine says to me one day, 'Read that.' It was Governor Barker writin' to her about her brother and her sorrow.” Lin paused. “And about me. I can't never tell you—but he said a heap I didn't deserve. And he told her about me picking up Billy in Denver streets that time, and doing for him because his own home was not a good one. Governor Barker wrote Jessamine all that; and she said, 'Why did you never tell me?' And I said it wasn't anything to tell. And she just said to me, 'It shall be as if he was your son and I was his mother.' And that's the first regular kiss she ever gave me I didn't have to take myself. God bless her! God bless her!”
As we ate our supper, young Billy burst out of brooding silence: “I didn't ask her about Laramie. So there!”
“Well, well, kid,” said the cow-puncher, patting his head, “yu' needn't to, I guess.”
But Billy's eye remained sullen and jealous. He paid slight attention to the picture-book of soldiers and war that Jessamine gave him when we went over to the station. She had her own books, some flowers in pots, a rocking-chair, and a cosey lamp that shone on her bright face and dark dress. We drew stools from the office desks, and Billy perched silently on one.
“Scanty room for company!” Jessamine said. “But we must make out this way—till we have another way.” She smiled on Lin, and Billy's face darkened. “Do you know,” she pursued to me, “with all those chickens Mr. McLean tells me about, never a one has he thought to bring here.”
“Livin' or dead do you want 'em?” inquired Lin.
“Oh, I'll not bother you. Mr. Donohoe says he will—”
“Texas? Chickens? Him? Then he'll have to steal 'em!” And we all laughed together.
“You won't make me go back to Laramie, will you?” spoke Billy, suddenly, from his stool.