[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.Just hand me the saddle, William, please.""You're only trying to scare me out," Billy Louise accused him, with a vast relief well hidden."I'm not a bit afraid of him.""All right; that'll help some." He steadied himself by the horse's twitching shoulder while he reached carefully for the cinch."I guess I'm more scared than you are.""I know you are.I've taken too many tumbles to let the prospect of another one worry me, anyway.Why, Blue ditched me himself, three different times when I first began to ride him.And even yet the old devil would like to, once in a while." Billy Louise was actually talking herself rapidly into a feeling of confidence.She needed it.When she had helped Ward upon Blue—and that was not easy, either, considering that he only had one leg fit to stand on—and had gone to the cabin for her bag of nuggets and Ward's roll of money which he had forgotten, and had exhausted every other excuse for delay, she picked up Rattler's reins and wound her fingers in his mane, and took hold of the stirrup as nonchalantly as if she were mounting Blue.She went up at the instant when Rattler jumped sidewise from her.She got partly into the saddle, clung there for a few harrowing seconds, and then went over his head and plump into a snowdrift beside the stable."Good God!" groaned Ward and went white and weak as he watched."Good gracious!" grumbled Billy Louise, righting herself and digging snow out of her collar and sleeves."Stop your laughing, Ward Warren!" (Ward was not laughing, and she knew it.) "I'll ride that ornery cayuse, just to show him I can.You Rattler, I'll fix you for that!" She turned to Ward and twisted her lips at him."I see now why you named him that," she said."Because he rattles your teeth loose.""You keep off him!" Ward shouted sternly."You keep still!" Billy Louise shouted back at him."We're going to find out right now who's boss."Whether she referred to Rattler or to his master she did not stipulate; perhaps she meant both of them.At any rate, she caught the horse again and mounted, a great deal more cautiously than she had at first, in spite of Ward's threats and entreaties.She got fairly into the saddle and stayed there—with the help of the horn and the luck that had thus far carried her through almost anything she undertook.She was not a bit ashamed of "pulling leather.""Now we're all right and comfy," she announced breathlessly, when the first fight was over and Rattler, like his master, had yielded to the inevitable."And we know who's boss, and we're all of us squindiciously happy, because we're headed for home.Aren't we, buckaroo?""I suppose so," Ward mumbled doubtingly, for a moment eyeing her sidelong.He was not quite over his scare yet."And say, buckaroo!" Billy Louise reined close, so that she could reach out and pinch his arm a little bit."Soon as your leg is all well, and you're every speck over the hookin'-cough, why—you can be the boss!""Can I?""Honest, you can.I've"—Billy Louise had the grace to blush a little—"I've always thought I'd love to have somebody bully me and boss me and 'buse me.And I—" Her lips twitched a little."I think you can qualify.What was that you said just as I was getting on the second time? I was too busy to listen, but—""But what? I don't remember that I said anything." Ward got hold of her free hand and held it tight."Oh, yes, you did! It was sweary, too.""Was it?""Yes, it was.You sweared at Flower of the Ranch-oh."Billy Louise stopped at that, since Ward refused to be baited.She sensed that there were bigger things than a "sweary" sentence in the forefront of her buckaroo's mind.She waited.They came to the gate, and Billy Louise freed her hand from his clasp and dismounted, since it was a wire gate and could not be opened on horseback.She closed it after him, looked to her cinch, tightened it a little, patted Rattler forgivingly on the neck, caught the horn with one hand and the stirrup with the other, and went up quite like a man, while Ward watched her intently."'In sooth, I know not why you are so sa-ad,'" murmured Billy Louise, when she swung alongside in the trail [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

zanotowane.pl

doc.pisz.pl

pdf.pisz.pl

listy-do-eda.opx.pl