Robert Alexander Wason

“ It was a moonlight night, one of those crisp, bright nights, when it makes a feller feel solemn just to get up high and look down at the beauty of the old, hard Earth. We had been talkin’ o’ the old days as usual; but not talkin’ much, for we each saw the same set of pictures when we looked down from here, and they didn’t need many words.
“Life is like a game o’ chess,” sez Horace. “The openin’ is not so absolutely vital; but after a time the’ comes one little move which is the keynote of all the balance of the game—and the same is true o’ life. ”

“ It starves those who scorn it, while those who pay out their souls for it find themselves sinking, sinking, sinking in its hideous quicksand until at last it closes above their mad screams. God! if I only had my life to live over! ”

“ A man, you know, as a rule, is mighty timid about the things which lie close to his heart, no matter how bold and free he’ll talk about other things; but the Friar was like a little child, an’ he’d speak out as bold and frank as one, about the things he loved and hated, until he finally put a few drops o’ this queer brand o’ courage into our own hearts. ”

“ If I can't live here in peace I'll have to hunt a new place to live; but as long as I do stay here you will have to act like a man—even if you can't act like a father. I think that in the future I shall take my meals alone. ”

“ You can do it in ten minutes, say; but it takes us about a week, and by that time the’ won’t be any need for the law.”
“No,” sez the Friar, “I insist that we rely upon the law. We count ourselves as of the better element; and the most vicious conditions arise when the better element takes the law into its own hands. When a vicious man does illegal violence, it does not establish a precedent; but when the decent man does the same thing, it tears away forms of civilization which have taken centuries to construct.” ”

“ I can easy see how a feller would kill a man for ill-treatin' the woman he loved; but I can't see how he could marry a girl who didn't love him with all her heart. An' Jim, he's been square. They're happy, an' I stand afar off watchin' 'em; an' some way when I'm out in the starlight—when it seems that I ain't lyin' on the earth at all, but floatin' slow an' easy like an eagle restin' on his wings—I seem to share in their love, an' I don't seem to grow old. ”

“ No, I will not do it.”
“Tell me how Badger-face looks to you,” sez Horace.
“Oh, he is bad,” sez Olaf. “He has the hate color, he loves to kill; but he is like the wolf; he does not like the fight, he wants always to kill in secret.”
“I bet my eyes are a little like yours,” sez Horace, noddin’ his head. “I knew ’at Badger-face was this way as soon as I saw him.”
“Oh, here now,” sez the Friar. “You are puttin’ down a special gift to the level of shrewd character-readin’.”
“What sort of a flame does a dead person have, Olaf?” sez Horace. ”

“ CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE—JUSTICE UNDELAYED Human emotions are like clocks: some of ’em will run longer ’n others; but they’ll all run down unless they’re wound up again every so often. Even fear will only run so long, as several late-lamented bullies have been forced to learn just before they passed over the Great Divide. After you’ve scared a feller as bad as he can get, it is well enough to let him alone. If you keep on addin’ horror onto horror, his fear is likely to run down; and the chances are ’at he’ll get irritated, and slaughter ya. ”

“ A boy starts out believin' most o' what's told him an' thinkin' that it's his duty to reform the world; an' about the only thing he is careless of is human life—his own or any one else's. Fact o' the matter is that if you watch him close enough you'll find out that even in his games a boy is about the solemnest thing on earth, an' you have to know the game purty thorough to tell when it drifts into a real fight. That's why all wars have been fought by boys. They believe in any cause 'at looks big enough to lay down their lives for, an' that's their chief ambition. ”

“ That's what I want most of all. If you would only go back to the old times, if you would only get this sneak out of your head"—Jabez had started in gentle an' repentent, but the minute he thought of Dick again he flared out white with rage—"an' you might just as well get him out of your head, 'cause he's the same as dead to you. I hate him! I hate every sneak; an' I hate every lie—spoken or lived, I hate a lie!"
The ol' man leaned forward, shaking with anger, an' Barbie got up like a queen an' walked out o' the room as though she was steppin' on the necks of the airy-stockracy. ”

“ When I see her again, I shall tell her of meetin’ you, and what you have said. I have no desire except to do the best for all of you, and if you love her truly, all you will want will be to do that which is best for her.”
The Friar paused, and I pulled my ear clear to the edge o’ the rock, so as not to miss a word. “Olaf,” he went on in a low, sorrowful voice, “the love of a man for a woman is a wonderful thing, a terrible thing, a soul-testing thing. Don’t let your love become common for men to talk over. ”

“ You know in your heart I'd be proud of you in any company on earth, but the' is a heap o' difference between you an' me. You have been successful, an' strangers will respect you for it; but it's got to be a show-down with me every time. If I don't learn the new gaits, so a stranger will think I'm city-broke, some fresh tourist is apt to get the idee that I'm as uncivilized as my manners, an' it won't do to tramp on my toes—not overly often. But I don't have to leave you. I'll just turn in an' do the job right here on the ranch, an' accordin' to the very latest models. ”

“ As long as one bein’ in the world is cold or hungry or diseased, every other bein’ is liable to become hungry and cold and diseased. What I am fighting for is a world without poverty. Most o’ the ills of life spring from poverty, and poverty is the result of selfishness and greed. The earth is reeking with riches, but its bounty is not divided fairly. ”

“ He tried not to grin, I'll say that for him, but he couldn't cut it. "Why, bless your heart, boy, you never will be practical, an' as for business, you have about the same talent for it as a grizzly bear. You enjoy life as you go along, an' you enjoy it full an' free; a business man don't enjoy anything but makin' money. You may be rich some day, but it won't be from attendin' to business. Now take a lay-off if you want to, an' get this nonsense out of your system, then come back here. You know 'at Barbie misses you every minute you're away."
"All right," I sez, "I'll try it. ”

“ The greatest charm in the told story comes direct from the teller; and, toil as we will over printed pages, they obstinately refuse to reproduce the twinkle of bright, deep-set eyes, the whimsical twist which gives character to a commonplace word, the subtile modulations of a mellow voice, the discriminating accent which makes a sentence fire when spoken, and only ashes when written ”

“ It was some comical to see Jabez's face. "Lord, no!" sez he. "I'm in the habit o' payin' wages to people 'at work for themselves, an' I don't reckon I got the authority to make anybody get off my ranch. If you've been foolin' around here, how come the dogs never barked at ya?"
"Dogs ain't apt to forget the hand that feeds 'em. After a dog has thought well of ya for a while, he don't turn on ya just because you've become out o' favor for a spell; the friendship of a dog works both ways—dogs ain't like human beings, Jabez Judson." ”

“ You may think ’at you sound as saintly as a white female angel when you whine about duty and forgiveness and such-like rubbish; but the more oil you put on your voice, the more I know you to be a sneak, a hypocrite, and a traitor. ”

“ Jim an' Barbie an' the children come back every summer; Bill an' Jessamie an' their outfit hop in on me most any time, Ches an' his bunch drop in for a week or so now an' again, an' if I ever do get lonesome I just sneak my full-dress uniform out o' the hay an' go down to Frisco for a little easin' off o' the guy-ropes. Oh, I haven't had to petition to congress to have my name changed; I'm Happy. I'm happier than any human ever had a right to be, an' life never drags none—at least not in the daytimes. ”

“ To find the woman he loved in the hands of the man who hated him, after all the years he had been in suspense about her was enough to tip any one off his balance; and I also knew the Friar. He had trained himself for eternity so long that some of his earthly idees weren’t sound, and the surest way to bring him to himself was to let him bark his knees a time or two. Some imported hosses carry their gaze so high they can’t see their footin’ but after they’ve stepped into a few prairie-dog holes, they learn to take a little more interest in what they’re treadin’ on. ”

“ I don't reckon I ever will grow old, 'cause love is—love is—some way MY love is like the starlight itself; an' the starlight don't scorch an' weaken an' pester like the sun; it soothes an' softens an' lifts a man up where it's calm an' steady and—and pure. ”

“ No matter what else in life may be questioned, no matter how hard and fast a title may stick, it must crumble to dust when one comes and says, ‘The Lord hath need of this.’ It may be your life or it may be your property or it may be the one being you love most in all the world ”

“ In believing what men have told you of me you have insulted her, by admitting that such a thing is possible. Go back to your work, kill no man for what he says of her; but keep her pure in your own heart, and this will be the best way to keep her pure before the world. Silence the gossips by living above them ”

“ Anyway, we went long enough to get into that numb condition when the earth becomes molten copper, and the sky a sun glass, and a man himself feels like another man’s nightmare. That tender old Promotheus you’re sympathizin’ with, carried me the best part of a day, or a century—time had melted entirely away—and when we came back to our senses we lay beside a pool of water. ”

“ When the fever started to leave, he got so weak ’at Horace thought he was goin’ to flicker out, an’ he felt purty bad about it. He didn’t regret havin’ done it, an’ said he would do just the same if he had it to do over; but it calls up some mighty serious thoughts when a fellow reflects that he is the one who has pushed another off into the dark. On the night when it seemed certain that Badger-face would lose his grip, we all went into his room an’ sat around waitin’ for the end, to sort o’ cheer him up a little. Life itself is a strange enough adventure, but death has it beat a mile. ”

“ Let’s hang him, and get rid o’ this foolishness.”
“Flannigan,” sez the Friar in cold, hard tones, “you have gone too far this time. If you had hung Olaf at first, you might have done it from a proverted sense o’ justice; but to do it now would be murder; and your own men wouldn’t help. Do any of you men chew tobacco?”
If he had asked for a can o’ face-paint, we wouldn’t ’a’ been more surprised; but to show the hold the Friar had gained over that crowd, every feller there but Badger-face held out his plug to him. ”

“ He said that city folks got to relyin’ on themselves so much ’at they was likely to forget that the whole earth was still held in the hollow of the hand which had created it; but that men who lived with nature, out under the sun and the stars, through the heat and the cold, the wind and the rain, the chinook and the blizzard, felt the forces and the mysteries all about them and this kept ’em in touch, even when they didn’t know it themselves, with the great central Intelligence back o’ these forces and mysteries. ”

“ CHAPTER EIGHTEEN—TESTING THE FRIAR’S NERVE As soon as we had eaten breakfast next mornin’, the Friar sez: “You, bein’ one o’ the earth animals, have never had much chance to see a view. Yesterday your curiosity was itchin’ so ’at I doubt if you could have told a mountain peak from a Mexican hat; but now that you have temporarily suppressed your thirst for gossip, had a good sleep, and a better breakfast, drag yourself out to the front porch and take a bird’s-eye view of the world.” ”

“ The real fathers and mothers are those who put the best part o’ their lives into makin’ the big, gloomy world into a tender home for all the little ones; and after my visit to the graveyard I felt drawn even closer to Dad and Mother than I had before. ”

“ Promotheus opened his eyes and his jagged, gnarly teeth showed in a smile, weak and trembly, but still game to the last line of it. “Nope,” he said so low we could hardly hear him, “I’m Promotheus, all right. I hung on as long as I could; but the vultures have finished my liver at last, Horace—they have finally finished it. I hate to leave you; but I’ll have to be goin’ soon. The’s only one thing I ask of ya—don’t send a single one o’ the boys to the pen. They don’t know what the world really is ”

“ 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 other animals is willin’ to do what they can do, an’ they take pride in seein’ how well they can do it; but not so a human. He only takes pride in tryin’ to do the things he can’t do. A hog don’t try to fly, nor a butterfly don’t try to play the cornet, nor a cow don’t set an’ fret because she can’t climb trees like a squirrel; but not so with man: he has to try everything ’at anything else ever tried, an’ he don’t care what it costs nor who gets killed in the attempt. Sometimes you hear a wise guy say: “No, no that’s contrary to human nature.” ”

“ When a dog signs up, he don’t whisper nothin’ under his breath. He signs up for the full trip, and he don’t ask a lot o’ questions about how long the hours’ll be, or what sort o’ grub and quarters and pay he’ll draw. He just wags his tail, and sez: “This here feller is my idea of exactly what a feller ought to be; and I’m for him in all he does. If he wants me to fight, I’m hungry for it, if he wants me to be polite and swaller a lot o’ insults, I’ll do it, or if the time comes when my death is worth more to him ’n my life, why, I don’t know nothin’ about future rewards or such truck ”

“ She was game, all right, Kit was.
“That is why I say it is all right,” sez Olaf. “She is young, she cannot know how she will change. If ever she no longer love me, I will not bother her. That would be a foolishness; but so long as she love me, no other man will bother her. That would be devilishness!”
“You certainly have a nice, simple scheme of life,” sez Horace. “If ever you change your mind, I’ll put up the money to take you back East, an’ pay you high wages.”
“No,” sez Olaf, “I hate circuses an’ shows, an’ such things. ”

“ A story should travel an air-line and not stop at the smaller stations, while Happy prefers to take his bed along on a spare horse and camp out wherever the mood strikes him. The reader who delights in a story which speeds along like a limited, will probably be disappointed in this book; while, on the other hand, the reader who enjoys the intimate association which is lighted with the evening camp fire, runs a risk of finding some relaxation in taking another little trip with Happy Hawkins. ”