Is anything the matter with you ?--does my clatter--" "Oh, dear--no.

Pray go on--I like it." "Yes, you see, he's been over here ten years; he's twenty-eight, now, and he ain't pretty well satisfied in his mind, because he can't get reconciled to being a mechanic and associating with mechanics, he being, as he says to me, a gentleman, which is a pretty plain letting-on that the boys ain't, but of course I know enough not to let that cat out of the bag." "Why--would there be any harm in it ?" "Harm in it?
They'd lick him, wouldn't they?
Wouldn't you?
Of course you would.

Don't you ever let a man say you ain't a gentleman in this country.

But laws, what am I thinking about?
I reckon a body would think twice before he said a cowboy wasn't a gentleman." A trim, active, slender and very pretty girl of about eighteen walked into the room now, in the most satisfied and unembarrassed way.

She was cheaply but smartly and gracefully dressed, and the mother's quick glance at the stranger's face as he rose, was of the kind which inquires what effect has been produced, and expects to find indications of surprise and admiration.
"This is my daughter Hattie--we call her Puss.