In course, in course, said McKinstry, nodding complacently. Shes a good woman in and around the ranch, and in any doins o this kind, he lightly waved his wounded arm in the air, there aint a better, tho I say it. She was Blair Rawlins darter; she and her brother Clay bein the only ones that kem out safe arter their twenty years fight with the McEntees in West Kaintuck. But she dont understand gals ez you and me do. Not that Im much, ez I orter be more kam. And the old woman jest sized the hull thing when she said SHE hadnt any hand in Cressys engagement. No more she had! And ez far ez that goes, no more did me, nor Seth Davis, nor Cressy. He paused, and lifting his heavy-lidded eyes to the master for the second time, said reflectively, Ye mustnt mind my tellin yeez betwixt man and manthat THE one ez is most responsible for the makin and breakin o that engagement is YOU!
Me! said the master in utter bewilderment.
You! repeated McKinstry quietly, reinstalling the hand Ford had attempted to withdraw. I aint sayin ye either knowd it or kalkilated on it. But it war so. Ef yed hark to me, and meander on a little, Ill tell ye HOW it war. I dont mind walkin a piece YOUR way, for if we go towards the ranch, and the hounds see me, theyll set up a racket and bring out the old woman, and then good-by to any confidential talk betwixt you and me. And Im, somehow, kammer out yer.
He moved slowly down the trail, still holding Fords arm confidentially, although, owing to his large protecting manner, he seemed to offer a ridiculous suggestion of supporting HIM with his wounded member.
When you first kem to Injin Spring, he began, Seth and Cressy was goin to school, boy and girl like, and nothin more. Theyd known each other from babiesthe Davises bein our neighbors in Kaintuck, and emigraten with us from St. Joe. Seth mout hev cottoned to Cress, and Cress to him, in course o time, and there wasnt anythin betwixt the families to hev kept em from marryin when they wanted. But there never war any words passed, and no engagement.
But, interrupted Ford hastily, my predecessor, Mr. Martin, distinctly told me that there was, and that it was with YOUR permission.
Thats only because you noticed suthin the first day you looked over the school with Martin. Dad, sez Cress to me, that new teachers very peart; and hes that keen about noticin me and Seth that I reckon youd better giv out that were engaged. But are you? sez I. Itll come to that in the end, sez Cress, and if that yer teacher hez come here with Northern ideas o society, its just ez well to let him see Injin Spring aint entirely in the woods about them things either. So I agreed, and Martin told you it was all right; Cress and Seth was an engaged couple, and you was to take no notice. And then YOU ups and objects to the hull thing, and allows that courtin in school, even among engaged pupils, aint proper.
The master turned his eyes with some uneasiness to the face of Cressys father. It was heavy but impassive.
I dont mind tellin you, now that its over, what happened. The trouble with me, Mr. Ford, isI aint kam! and YOU air, and thats what got me. For when I heard what youd said, I got on that mustang and started for the school-house to clean you out and giv you five minutes to leave Injin Spring. I dont know ez you remember that day. Id kalkilated my time so ez to ketch ye comin out o school, but I was too airly. I hung around out o sight, and then hitched my hoss to a buckeye and peeped inter the winder to hev a good look at ye. It was very quiet and kam. There was squirrels over the roof, yellow-jackets and bees dronin away, and kinder sleeping-like all around in the air, and jay-birds twitterin in the shingles, and they never minded me. You were movin up and down among them little gals and boys, liftin up their heads and talkin to em softly and quiet like, ez if you was one of them yourself. And they looked contented and kam. And onctI dont know if YOU remember ityou kem close up to the winder with your hands behind you, and looked out so kam and quiet and so far off, ez if everybody else outside the school was miles away from you. It kem to me then that Id given a heap to hev had the old woman see you thar. It kem to me, Mr. Ford, that there wasnt any place for ME thar; and it kem to me, tooand a little rough likethat mebbee there wasnt any place there for MY Cress either! So I rode away without disturbin you nor the birds nor the squirrels. Talkin with Cress that night, she said ez how it was a fair sample of what happened every day, and that youd always treated her fair like the others. So she allowed that shed go down to Sacramento, and get some things agin her and Seth bein married next month, and she reckoned she wouldnt trouble you nor the school agin. Hark till Ive done, Mr. Ford, he continued, as the young man made a slight movement of deprecation. Well, I agreed. But arter she got to Sacramento and bought some fancy fixins, she wrote to me and sez ez how shed been thinkin the hull thing over, and she reckoned that she and Seth were too young to marry, and the engagement had better be broke. And I broke it for her.
But how? asked the bewildered master.
Ginrally with this gun, returned McKinstry with slow gravity, indicating the rifle he was carrying, for I aint kam. I let on to Seths father that if I ever found Seth and Cressy together again, Id shoot him. It made a sort o coolness betwixt the families, and hez given some comfort to them low-down Harrisons; but even the law, I reckon, recognizes a fathers rights. And ez Cress sez, now ez Seths out o the way, thar aint no reason why she cant go back to school and finish her eddication. And I reckoned she was right. And we both agreed that ez shed left school to git them store clothes, it was only fair that shed give the school the benefit of em.
The case seemed more hopeless than ever. The master knew that the man beside him might hardly prove as lenient to a second objection at his hand. But that very reason, perhaps, impelled him, now that he knew his danger, to consider it more strongly as a duty, and his pride revolted from a possible threat underlying McKinstrys confidences. Nevertheless he began gently:
But you are quite sure you wont regret that you didnt avail yourself of this broken engagement, and your daughters outfitto send her to some larger boarding-school in Sacramento or San Francisco? Dont you think she may find it dull, and soon tire of the company of mere children when she has already known the excitement ofhe was about to say a lover, but checked himself, and added, a young girls freedom?
Mr. Ford, returned McKinstry, with the slow and fatuous misconception of a one-ideaed man, when I said just now that, lookin inter that kam, peaceful school of yours, I didnt find a place for Cress, it warnt because I didnt think she OUGHTER hev a place thar. Thar was that thar wot she never had ez a little girl with me and the old woman, and that she couldnt find ez a grownd up girl in any boarding-schoolthe home of a child; that kind o innocent foolishness that I sometimes reckon must hev slipped outer our emigrant wagon comin across the plains, or got left behind at St. Joe. She was a grownd girl fit to marry afore she was a child. She had young fellers a-sparkin her afore she ever played with em ez boy and girl. I dont mind tellin you that it wernt in the natur of Blair Rawlins darter to teach her own darter any better, for all shes been a mighty help to me. So if its all the same to you, Mr. Ford, we wont talk about a grownd up school; Id rather Cress be a little girl again among them other children. I should be a powerful sight more kam if I knowed that when I was away huntin stock or fightin stakes with them Harrisons, that she was a settin there with them and the birds and the bees, and listenin to them and to you. Mebbee theres been a little too many scrimmages goin on round the ranch sence shes been a child; mebbee she orter know suthin more of a man than a feller who sparks her and fights for her.