It had been some interval since I’d seen Kit Murray, an’ I was surprised to view the change in her. She didn’t look so much older, but all the recklessness had gone out of her face, an’ it had a sort of a quiet, holy look about it. “Kit,” I sez, “I wish ya all the joy the’ is; but I’d ’a’ been willin’ to have bet my eyes ’at you’d never take Olaf. I was glad to see him go up after ya, ’cause gettin’ knocked on the head is some better ’n bein’ kept hangin’ on a hook; but you sure got your nerve with ya. This homestead is purty likely to get in some other folks’ way.”
Kit had as snappy a pair o’ black eyes as was ever stuck in a face; and now they flashed out full power. “I know it’s goin’ to be hard to hold this place,” sez she, “but I reckon I can help a little. I can ride an’ shoot as well as a man, if I have to, and you know it. I don’t want anything but the quietest sort of a life the’ is; but I’m ready to stand for any sort o’ luck ’at comes along. As for Olaf, he’s the only man in the world for me. I saw something o’ the big cities back east, an’ Billings, an’ the boys on the range here, and out of ’em all, Olaf’s my man. The thing I hope more ’n anything else is, that we can die together.”
Her voice caused a hush to come to the room. I had meant to be jovial an’ hearty; but the’ was an undercurrent of earnestness in her voice which put a tingle into a feller. Kit Murray had changed a heap, but all for the better.
Olaf cleared his throat, an’ we all took a look at him. He had changed, too. He had lost the chained-bear look he generally wore, an’ the’ was a light o’ pride an’ satisfaction in his face which was good to look upon. “Boys,” he said, “I’ve been purty tough an’ unsociable, an’ I don’t see why you’ve took so much trouble for me; but I tell ya right here that I stand ready to square it in any way or at any time I can. Now, it seems mighty funny ’at Kit Murray should love me, an’ I can’t account for it any more ’n you can; but I knew right from the start that she did love me—I could tell by the light. If ever the time comes that she don’t love me any more, I get out of her way, that’s all about that; but I’m not goin’ to make her stay here any longer ’n I have to. I sell out when I get the first chance. Friar Tuck, he softened my heart, an’ he watched over her. He’s a man. That’s all I can say.”
Well, this was an all-around noble speech for a stone image like Olaf had been, an’ we cheered him to the echo; but Horace had sort o’ been jostled to the outside an’ forgot. Now, he come forward an’ shook Olaf by the hand an’ congratulated him, an’ sez: “The’s one thing I’d like mightily to know, an’ that is—what the deuce do you mean by this light you’re allus alludin’ to?”
Olaf was some embarrassed; but it never seemed to fuss Horace any when he had turned all the fur the’ was in sight the wrong way; so he just waited patiently while Olaf spluttered about it.
“I don’t know myself,” sez Olaf. “Always, since I was a little child, I have seen a floating light about people. I thought every one saw this light an’ I spoke of it when I was a child an’ asked my mother about it many times; but at first she thought I lie, an’ then she thought my head was wrong; so I stopped talkin’ about it; but always I see it an’ it changes with the feelings and with the health. All the colors and shades I cannot read, but some I know. I knew that Kit Murray loved me before she knew it, and I knew that the Friar was a true man when they told me tales of him. Animals, too, have this floatin’ light about ’em, an’ I can tell when they are frightened an’ when they are mean. This is why I handle hosses without trouble. Now I do not know why my eyes are this way; but I have told you because you have been good friends to me. I do not want you to tell of this because it makes people think I am crazy.”
“Course it does,” sez Horace. “It made me think you were crazy. I never heard of anything like this before. Tell me some more about it.”
“There is no more to tell,” sez Olaf. “When I see the flame I do not see the people. The flame wavers about them, and sometimes I have seen it at night, but not often. I do nothing to make myself see this way. Always my eyes did this even when I was only a baby.”
“Well, you have everything beat I ever saw yet,” sez Horace. “What do you think o’ this, Friar?”