She wished _she_ had a boy like him! Why, when she and John hit hard
luck, last year, what with the cattle getting diseased first and her and
John getting laid up next, flat of their backs with the grip, that man
was an angel in britches and spurs if there ever was an angel in
anything! He'd nursed them and cooked for them, and lifted her out of
her bed while he made it up himself, just as smooth and nice as you
could have done, Miss. And he rode clean into town for a doctor, and
brought him out and a lot of store stuff that was nice for sick folks to
eat. And he'd paid the doctor, too, and laughed and said he'd come some
day and borry the money back when he got busted playing poker!
"And then, all of a sudden, when you'd have thought he was soft that way
clean through," she went on, her eyes blazing now at the memory of it,
"them Bedloe boys come over lookin' for trouble. An' Buck sure gave it
to them!"
"Tell me about it," the girl said quickly. "Who are the Bedloe boys?
What did they do?"
"The Bedloe boys," Mrs. Smith ran on, eager in the recounting, "belong
over to the Corners. Or the Corners belongs to them, I don't know which
you'd say. Never heard of them boys? Well, most folks has. There used to
be lots like the Bedloe boys when I was a girl, Miss, but thank gracious
they're getting thinned out powerful fast.
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