human
Mommie, that nephew goes at everything just as if it were a game, she said after one visit.
gpt
You know what that cabin has always been: dark and dirty and not a comfortable chair to sit down in, or a book or magazine or anything? Well, I'm just going to take you over there some day and let you see the difference. He's cut two more windows and built on an addition with a porch, if you please. And he has a bookcase he made himself, just stuffed with books and magazines. And he made Marthy a rocking-chair, mommie, and--she wears a white apron, and has her hair combed, and sits and rocks! Honest to goodness, you wouldn't think she was the same woman.
human
Marthy always seemed to me more like a man than a woman, said her mother.
gpt
She didn't have nothing domestic in her whole make-up, far as I could see. Her cooking--
human
Well, mommie, Marthy cooks real well now. Charlie praises up her bread, and she takes lots of pains with it. And she just fusses with her flowers and lets him run the ranch; and, mommie, she just worships Charlie! The way she sits and looks at him when he's talking--you can see she almost says prayers to him. She does let her dishpan stay greasy--I don't suppose you can change a person completely--but everything is lots cleaner than it used to be before Charlie came. He's going to buy more cattle, too, he says. Young stock, mostly. He says there's no sense in anybody being poor, in such a country as this. He says he intends to make Marthy rich; Aunt Martha, he calls her. I'm certainly going to take you over to see her, mommie, the very first nice day when I don't have a million other things to do. Billy Louise sighed and pushed her hair back impatiently.
gpt
I wish I were a man and as smart as Charlie Fox,
human
A man can get out and do things. And a woman--why, even Ward seems to think it's perfectly wonderful, mommie, that we don't just about starve, with me running the ranch! I know he does. Every time I do a thing right or pay off a note or anything, he looks as if--
gpt
I wouldn't be a mite surprised, Billy Louise, said her mother, with a flash of amused comprehension,
human
I'm not the manager Charlie Fox is, though.
gpt
He didn't have any more to do with than I've got, and he's accomplished a lot more. And, besides, he started in green at the whole business. She rested her chin in her cupped palms and stared disconsolately at the high-piled hills behind which the sun was setting gloriously.
human
He's going to pipe water into the house, mommie, she observed, after a silence.
gpt
I wish--
human
Well, he's welcome. I don't want no water piped in here, Billy Louise, and tastin' of the pipe. I'd rather carry it and have it sweet and fresh. Don't you go worrying because you can't do everything Charlie Fox does. Likely as not he's pilin' up the debts instead of payin' 'em off as you're doing.
gpt
I don't know; I don't believe he is, though. I think he's just managing right and making every dollar count. He got calves from Seabeck, up the river, cheaper than I did from Johnson, mommie. He rode all over the country and looked up range conditions and prices. He didn't say so, but he made me feel foolish because I just bought the first ones I saw, without waiting to look around first. But--Ward said it was a good buy, and he ought to know; only, the fact remains that Charlie has done better. I guess it isn't experience that counts, altogether. Charlie Fox has got brains!
human
Land alive! I guess he ain't the only one, Billy Louise. You're doing better than your father done, and he wasn't any Jase Meilke kind of a man, but a good, hard worker always. You don't want to get all outa conceit with yourself just because Charlie Fox is gitting along all right. I don't know as it's so wonderful. Marthy was always forehanded, and she made money there and never spent any to speak of. Though I shouldn't carry the idea she's stingy, after the way she--