human
Sorry I gotta go, William, he volunteered whimsically soon after breakfast.
gpt
But I gotta dig. Say, Wilhemina, if I stay away long enough, will you come after me again?
human
A wise man, said Billy Louise evasively,
gpt
I don't believe it's the dog. Ward shook his head at her in mock meditation.
human
It wouldn't last overnight, if it was just the dog. He looked at her with the hidden smile.
gpt
Are you sure--
human
I'm sure you know how to pester a person! The lips of Billy Louise twisted humorously.
gpt
Lots of things bother me, and you ought to help me out instead of making it worse.
human
Well, tell a fellow what they are. Of course, if it's the dog--
gpt
Ward Warren, you're awful! It isn't the dog. Well, it is, but there are heaps of other things I want to know, that I don't know. And you don't seem to care about any single one of them.
human
Name a few of them, William Louisa. Not even a brave young buckaroo can be expected to mind-read a girl. If he could--
gpt
Well, is it poison you use? Billy Louise thought it best to change Ward's trend of thought immediately.
human
Last night it just came to me all at once that you must have found some poison besides strychnine--
gpt
Eh? Oh, I see! He managed a rather provoking slur on the last word.
human
No, William. His eyes twinkled at her.
gpt
It isn't poison. What's the other thing you want to know?
human
What went with Seabeck's cattle, and Marthy and Charlie's, and all the others that have disappeared? You don't seem to care at all that there seems to be rustling going on around here.
gpt
I don't know that there is any. I never yet lived in a cow-country where there wasn't more or less talk of--rustling. You don't want to take gossip like that too seriously. Anything more?
human
Well, there's something about the Cove. I don't believe Marthy's happy. I couldn't quite get hold of the thing yesterday that gave me the blues--but it's Marthy. She's grieving, or something. She's different. She's changed more since last winter than she's changed since I can remember. You noticed something--at least you spoke about her coming up the gorge--
gpt
I said she thinks a lot of you, Wilhemina. Ward's tone and manner were natural again.
human
I noticed her looking at you when you didn't know it. She thinks a heap of you, I should say, and she's worrying about something. Maybe she'd rather have you in the Cove than Miss Gertrude M. Shannon. Don't you reckon an old lady that has had her own way all her life kind of dreads the advent of a brand-new bride in her domain?
gpt
Why, of course! Poor old thing! I never thought of that. And here you hit the nail on the head just with a chance thought. That shows what it means to be a brave young buckaroo, with heaps and piles of brains! She laughed at him, but behind her bantering was a new respect for Ward's astuteness.
human
Go on. Tell me why you don't like Charlie Fox, or why you refuse to admit how nice and kind he is and--
gpt
But I don't refuse--
human
Well, I put it stupidly, of course, but you know what I mean. Tell me your candid opinion of him.
gpt
I haven't any.