Once more the world looked big, alluring, and as full of untried possibilities as when he had "quit the flat" at thirteen.
"Have you noticed me doin' anything that isn't manners?" he asked in humble anxiety. "Don't be afraid of hurtin' my feelin's," he urged, "for I ain't none."
"If you honestly want me to tell you things, I will; but it seems so--so queer upon such a very short acquaintance."
"Shucks! What's the use of wastin' time pretendin' to get acquainted, when you're acquainted as soon as you look at each other? What's the use of sashayin' around the bush when you meet up with somebody you like? You just cut loose on me, girl."
"It's only a little thing, in a way, and not in itself important perhaps; yet it would be, too, if circumstances should take you into the world. It might make a bad impression upon strangers."
Smith looked slightly alarmed. He wondered if she suspected anything about White Antelope. At the moment, he could think of nothing else he had done within the last twenty-four hours, which might prejudice strangers.
"I noticed at the table," the Schoolmarm went on in some embarrassment, "that you held your fork as though you were afraid it would get away from you. Like this"--she illustrated with her fist.
"Like a ranch-hand holdin' onto a pitch-fork," Smith suggested, relieved.
"Something," she laughed. "It should be like this. Anyway," she declared encouragingly, "you don't eat with your knife."
"Naturally, in a land of sword-swallowers, I would;" the Schoolmarm made a wry face.
"Once I run with a high-stepper from Bowlin' Green, Kentucky, and she told me better nor that," he explained. "She said nothin' give a feller away like his habit of handlin' tools at the table. She was a lady all right, but she got the dope habit and threw the lamp at me. The way I quit her didn't trouble _me_. None of 'em ever had any holt on me when it come to a show-down; but you, girl, _you_----"
Her sharp exclamation interrupted him, and, following her gesture, he saw a flying horseman in the distance, riding as for his life, while behind him two other riders quirted their horses in hot pursuit.
"I don't think it," Smith replied dryly, noting the direction from which they came. "It looks like business."