PAINTED ROCK
"The boys won't let Walker shoot him up any," he said hopefully. "They're a fine lot o' boys to the City, and I reckon some day they'll make Walker like a sieve."
But when he went into the house he took down his father's old shot-gun and looked at it.
"I'll be the only one left," said Jeff as he put it back in its place. "The only one but Sis."
But nevertheless he slept soundly when he was once in the blankets, and he never woke till it was past midnight and the high moon made the prairie almost as light as day. When he woke he sat up suddenly.
"Paw!" he called; "Paw, ez that you?"
But there was no answer, and he came to himself.
"I thot I heard the ole man," he said. And even as he spoke he heard the sound of a horse coming across the prairie at a lope. He sprang out of bed and ran to the door.
"That ain't Paw, onless he's left the wagon to the City," he said. "There's times he will when he ain't sober and ain't rightly full."
40
