"They wouldn't imagine YOU was enjoying of yourself, not if they
was feeding their eyes on you every day. But I'm awful bothered
about Lahoma. I tell you, it ain't right to keep her shut up as in
a cage. Can't you see she's pining for high society such as I ain't
got it in me to supply, and you are too cussed obstinate to
display?"

"I guess that's so." Bill drew himself stiffly up by the tree
above--they were ascending the wooded gully that extended from base
to mountain-top.

"Well, what's the hurry? She's only seventeen years old."

"Yes, she was only seventeen years old, two years ago; but she's
nineteen, now."

Bill Atkins sank upon a rock at the foot of a bristling cedar.
"Nineteen! Who, LAHOMA? Then where've I been all the time?"

"You've been a-traveling along at a pretty fast clip toward your
last days, that's where you've been. Just look at yourself! Ain't
you always careful in making your steps as if scared of breaking
something? And now, you're out of breath!"

"It was knocked out by the thought of her being so old--but I guess
you're right. Well, I wouldn't call her life caged-up. The
settlers have been moving in pretty steadily, and she has friends
amongst all the families where there's women-folks. She has her
own pony, and is gone more than suits me; and although there's no
young man disposable, we ain't fretting about that, nor her