'LIES!' till you learns the flavor of a fellow's meaning, not by his
words but by the sauce he steeps 'em in."

"Don't get mad at me," said Lahoma to the trapper. "I don't know
nothing, never having captured and branded the thoughts that is
caged up in books. But I want to be civilized and I am
investigating according."

The trapper, somewhat conciliated, reseated himself. He regarded
the girl with greater interest, not without a certain approval.
"How comes it that you aren't civilized, living with such a knowing
specimen as your own father?"

"My father's dead. Brick is my cousin, but I not knowing nothing
of him till he saved my life two years ago and after that, me with
the Indians and him all alone. Would you like to hear about it?"

"I wouldn't bother him, honey, with all that long story," interposed
Willock, suddenly grown restive.

"Yes, tell me," said the trapper, moving over that she might find
room on the block of wood beside him.

Lahoma seated herself eagerly and looking up into the other's face,
which softened more and more under her fearless gaze, she said:

"We was crossing the plains--father, mother and me, in a big wagon.
And men dressed up like Indians, they come whooping and shooting,
and father turns around and drives with all his might--drives clear
to yonder mountain. And mother dies, being that sick before, and