"Sis is your kind--she--she's good enough for yuh, Bud, and I hope she--ll--well if she's got any sense she will--well, if it comes to the narrying point, I--well, darn it, I'd like to see Sis git as good a man as you are!" Eddie, having bluntered that far, went headlong as if he were afraid to stop.

"Sis is educated, and she's an awful good singer and a fine girl, only I'm her brother.

But I'm going to live honest from now on, Bud, and I hope you won't hold off on account of me.

I ain't going to have sis feel like crying when she thinks about me! You--you--said something that hurt like a knife, Bud, when you told me that, up in Crater.

And she wasn't to blame for marryn' Lew--and she done that outa goodness, the kind you showed to Jerry and me.