Part 27

"Very well, here is the money." The Eastern man held out a ten-dollar gold piece, which was seized upon by Jake, and without a word he and his companion started in a straight line for the saloon.

The Cowboy shouted after them: "Remember, I'll be back here next week, and if the dog isn't all right there'll be trouble." Then, turning to the girl, he said:

"Well, sis, the show's over; the dog's all right, so I guess I'll get aboard the train. So, so long."

"Please tell me your name, sir, and you, too, sir," turning to the Eastern man.

"Why, sis, what do you want to know my name for?"

"To pray for you, sir; mother's dead, but I pray every night just the same, and I ask God to bless Rover--he's all I've got now, you know. Is that wrong, sir? and to-night and every night I'm goin' to ask God to bless both o' you for bein' so kind ter Rover and me."

"Oh, that's all right, sis; don't think of it;" the Cowboy's voice was husky. "Good-by; good-by, Rover, old boy."

He seized the big dog in his arms and turned him over on his back, holding him down. The dog caught one of the man's hands in his huge mouth and chewed it gently, while the Cowboy poked him playfully in the ribs with the other. Then the man jumped up and ran for the car, with Rover leaping and romping about him, uttering great deep barks of joy. The Eastern man followed more slowly; a cinder or something had got into his eye, and he was ostentatiously wiping it out with the corner of his handkerchief.

That night, in the darkness of her room, the girl knelt by the side of her rough bed, and whispered softly her little prayer:

"God bless mamma, God bless papa, God bless Rover, and bless the two fellers that was good to me and Rover--I dunno their names, God, but you do."

The sounds of a slight figure getting into bed were followed by "'Scuse me, Rover, I didn't mean to step on yer foot; goodnight, Rover, dear." Several heavy blows on the floor answered her, and then for a time there was silence. The wind moaned faintly in the chimney and a rat squeaked and scampered across the floor; then a board creaked,--the child slept on oblivious to it all,--but at each new sound the dark form on the floor stirred slightly, a shaggy head was raised, and wide-open, faithful eyes gazed in the direction from whence it came, intent, alert, and watchful.

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Transcriber's Note:

The two Hebrew characters (khet on the right, dalet on the left) on p. 180 may appear reversed on some computer systems that have not been set to read right-to-left languages correctly.

Spelling variants and dialect have been left as they appear in the original (e.g. purp, p. 223; damndest, p. 212; and almightly, p. 195). Two misspellings of foreign words have also been retained. (matats for metates, p. 81; sapodillias for sapodillas, p. 194).

The following corrections and changes were made:

p. 19: pocket knife to pocket-knife p. 87: " to ' (will say, 'Haven't you got any real good blankets?) p. 121: is'nt to isn't (Nonsense, man, there isn't any dog.) p. 135: thought-transferrence to thought-transference (what is called telepathy or thought-transference) p. 143: is to was (It was a very cold day) p. 145: meetting to meeting (attending a corporation meeting) p. 176-177: duplicate text removed (original read: "dressed in the ordinary European costume. There [Page Break] in the ordinary European costume. There was nothing striking about him") p. 180: etc, to etc., ("Verily, out of the mouths of babes, etc.,") p. 196: Mellissuga minima to Mellisuga minima p. 202: ugly looking to ugly-looking p. 205: Heading for section added (I.)

Commas were changed to question marks in the following sentences:

p. 104: "Were you a doctor when alive?" I asked. p. 178: "What is this hieroglyphic affair at the top here?" he asked. p. 187: 'How did your brother procure it?' I asked.

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