Owen Wister

“ He and Towhead soon left Billy and his callow profanities behind, and engaged in a town conversation that silenced him, and set him listening with all his admiring young might. Nor did Mr. McLean join in the talk, but sat embarrassed by this knowledge, which seemed about as much as he knew himself.
56 “I’ll be goshed,” he thought, “if I’d caught on to half that when I was streakin’ around in short pants! Maybe they grow up quicker now.” But now the Country Mouse perceived Billy’s eager and attentive apprenticeship. “Hello, boys!” he said, “that theatre’s got a big start on us.” ”

“ A picture of a cow-puncher and himself discussing a couple of dolls rose nimbly in Barker’s mental eye, and it was with an imperfect honesty that he said, “You’ll help me a heap.”
And Lin, quite sincere, replied, “Thank yu’.”
So together these two went Christmasing in the throng. Wyoming’s Chief Executive knocked elbows with the spurred and jingling waif, one man as good as another in that raw, hopeful, full-blooded cattle era which now the sobered West remembers as the days of its fond youth. For one man has been as good as another in three places—Paradise before the Fall ”

“ Driven to bay by his bewilderment, he restated the facts of the past. “Why, she’d deserted him and Lusk before she’d ever laid eyes on me. I needn’t to bother myself. He wasn’t never even my step-kid.” The past, however, brought no guidance. “Lord, what’s the thing to do about this? If I had any home— This is a stinkin’ world in some respects,” said Mr. McLean, aloud, unknowingly. The lady in the chair beneath which the cow-puncher had his legs nudged her husband. ”

“ McLean, and they looked up at him, staring and fascinated. “Not having three feet,” said the cow-puncher, always grave and slow, “I can only give two this here job.”
“He’s got a big pistol and a belt!” exulted the leader, who had precociously felt beneath Lin’s coat.
“You’re a smart boy,” said Lin, considering him, “and yu’ find a man out right away. Now you stand off and tell me all about myself while they fix the boots—and a dollar goes to the quickest through.” ”

“ In the immediate weeks that came upon him he tasted a bitterness worse than in all his life before, and learned also how deep the woman, when once she begins, can sink beneath the man in baseness. That was a knowledge of which he had lived innocent until this time. ”

“ This uncertainty was expressed with such gentleness that Barker roared. “You never did lie to me,” he said, “long as I’ve known you. Well, never mind. I’ve got some real advice to ask you now.”
At this Mr. McLean’s face grew more alert. “Say, Doc,” said he, “what do yu’ want for Christmas that nobody’s likely to give yu’?”
“A big practice—big enough to interfere with my politics.”
18 “What else? Things and truck, I mean.”
“Oh—nothing I’ll get. People don’t give things much to fellows like me.”
“Don’t they? Don’t they?”
“Why, you and Santa Claus weren’t putting up any scheme on my stocking?” ”

“ Sheer amazement relaxed him, and the cow-puncher’s matted wealth tumbled on the floor in sight of all people. Barker picked it up and gave it back. “No, no, no!” he said, mirthful over his own inclination to be annoyed; “you can’t do that. I’m just as much obliged, Lin,” he added.
21 “Just as a loan. Doc—some of it. I’m grass-bellied with spot-cash.”
A giggle behind the counter disturbed them both, but the sharp young lady was only dusting. The Governor at once paid haughtily for Tennyson’s expensive works, and the cow-puncher pushed his discountenanced savings back into his clothes. ”

“ What do yu’ say, boys?”
That lighted the divine spark of brotherhood!
“Lin walked in their charge, they leading the way”
53 “Ah, you come along with us—we’ll take yer! You don’t want to go in there. We’ll show yer the boss place in Market Street. We won’t lose yer.” So, shouting together in their shrill little city trebles, they clustered about him, and one pulled at his coat to start him. He started obediently, and walked in their charge, they leading the way.
“Christmas is comin’ now, sure,” said Lin, grinning to himself. “It ain’t exactly what I figured on.” ”

“ McLean it grew less simple during that day at Golden, while Billy recovered, and talked, and ate his innocent meals. The cow-puncher was far too wise to think for a single moment of restoring the runaway to his debauched and shiftless parents. Possessed of some imagination, he went through a scene in which he appeared at the Lusk threshold with Billy and forgiveness, and intruded upon a conjugal assault and battery. ”

“ McLean in silence, at a wary interval, and with their mouths, during most of the journey, open. The badge, the pistol, their patron’s talk, and the unusual dollars wakened wide their bent for the unexpected, their street affinity for the spur of the moment; they believed slimly in the turkey part of it, but what this man might do next, to be there when he did it, and not to be trapped, kept their wits jumping deliciously; so when they saw him stop they stopped instantly, too, ten feet out of reach. This was Denver’s most civilized restaurant—that one which Mr. ”

“ McLean understood and winced in his spirit deep down. “Gee whiz!” went on Barker. “I’ll never forget you and Lusk that day!”
24 But the mask fell now. “You’re talking of his wife, not mine,” said the cow-puncher, very quietly, and smiling no more; “and, Doc, I’m going to say a word to yu’, for I know yu’ve always been my good friend. I’ll never forget that day myself—but I don’t want to be reminded of it.”
“I’m a fool, Lin,” said the Governor, generous instantly. “I never supposed—”
“I know yu’ didn’t. Doc. It ain’t you that’s the fool. ”

“ Lin, tall and brooding, leaned against the jutting sill of the window, a figure somehow plainly strange in town, while through the bright plate-glass Santa Claus, holding out his beer and sausages, perpetually beamed.
46 Billy was laboring gallantly, but it was labor, the cow-puncher perceived, and Billy no seasoned expert. “See here,” said Lin, stooping, “I’ll show yu’ how it’s done. He’s playin’ that toon cross-eyed enough to steer anybody crooked. There. Keep your blacking soft and work with a dry brush.” ”

“ They’re the people. So it’s drums, and dolls, and sheep on wheels, and games, and monkeys on a stick, and the saleslady shows you a mechanical bear, and it costs too much, and you forget whether the Judge’s second girl is Nellie or Susie, and—well, I’m just in for my annual circus this afternoon! You’re in luck. Christmas don’t trouble a chap fixed like you.”
Lin McLean prolonged the sentence like a distant echo.
8 “A chap fixed like you!” The cow-puncher said it slowly to himself. “No, sure.” He seemed to be watching Shorty, and Chalkeye, and Dollar Bill going down the road. ”

“ Barker ventured.
“Shucks, no! That’s all right, Doc. Only—yu’ see now. A man gets tired pretending—onced in a while.”
30
Time had gone while they were in talk, and it was now half after one and Mr. McLean late for that long-plotted first square meal. So the friends shook hands, wishing each other Merry Christmas, and the cow-puncher hastened towards his chosen companions through the stirring cheerfulness of the season. His play-hour had made a dull beginning among the toys. ”

“ McLean now burst. “An’ I ain’t big enough to get to make money at any other job.
90 “I want to see that engine-man,” muttered Lin. “I don’t like your smokin’ friend.”
“Pete Goode? Why, he’s awful smart. Don’t you think he’s smart?”
“Smart’s nothin’,” observed Mr. McLean.
“Pete has learned me and Sidney a lot,” pursued Billy, engagingly.
“I’ll bet he has!” growled the cow-puncher; and again Billy was taken aback at his language.
“‘This is Mister Billy Lusk’”
91 It was not so simple, this case. ”

“ And then this Governor, besides being young, almost as young as Lin McLean or the Chief-Justice (who lately had celebrated his thirty-second birthday) , had in his doctoring days at Drybone known the cow-puncher with that familiarity which lasts a lifetime without breeding contempt; accordingly, he now laid a hand on Lin’s tall shoulder and drew him among the petticoats and toys.
13 II
Lin’s Money is Dumb
14 Christmas filled the windows and Christmas stirred in mankind. ”

“ Cheyenne, not over-zealous in doctrine or litanies, and with the opinion that a world in the hand is worth two in the bush, nevertheless was flocking together, neighbor to think of neighbor, and every one to remember the children ”