`` I don't have many strays coming to my front door '', he said.

`` I mean, we don't have any way to get there and we can't expect you to quit work just to take us to town ''.

There's someone there I have to see.

I have to think about it.

We'll still have the rifle, and I might be able to round up some more.

As I dug in behind one of the bales we were using as protection, I grudgingly found myself agreeing with Oso's logic, especially when I imagined what would have happened to Missy if Old Knife's large party of screeching warriors had overrun our company.

I have it with me, right here.

) hung on a hook on the wall, and underneath it I could see his tie, knotted, ready to be slipped over his head, a black badge of frayed respectability that ought never to have left his neck.

I was at once disappointed, although just what I had expected him to look like I could not have explained.

As he lowered himself on the chair behind his desk I wondered what this dapper, slightly ridiculous man could possibly have to do with the workings of the hall.

But, by gosh, I want him and I'm going to have him!!

Don't like to bother no one unless we have to, which I figger we do, in your case.

`` I have a little job for you, Charlie.

`` You and I have a little talking to do, Jess.

I would have foregone my romantic chances rather than leave a friend sweltering and dusty and -- Well, at least I wouldn't have shouted back a taunt.

At once my ears were drowned by a flow of what I took to be Spanish, but -- the driver's white teeth flashing at me, the road wildly veering beyond his glistening hair, beyond his gesticulating bottle -- it could have been the purest Oxford English I was half hearing ; ;

I wouldn't have known the difference.

`` I get up early.

I don't know what makes you think you can get away with this kind of business, and I don't care about that, either.

`` Might get there faster walkin' '', Lord drawled, `` seein' as how I got a busted front spring.

I figger it's probl'y a sixty-five-mile walk, and I c'n maybe get this spring patched up in a couple of hours ''.

`` Not a danged thing but rattlesnakes, so I reckon I'll get the boss rattler to help me ''.

`` I don't know, Mr. Brenner '', he said haltingly, beginning to get an inkling of Brenner's plans.

`` Got a lot to tend to, but I'll get back quick as I can '', he assured her.

Rod shifted his eager eyes from the milling group out in the circle long enough to reply, `` I ain't much of a hand for Dare-Base and Farmer-in-the-Dell, but I'd sure like to get in on the handhold and wrestles ''.

Besides, 'tain't no more'n right for me to follow with my black oxen, so's I can unhook and pull up fast if either of you get in a pinch ''.

I didn't get a good look at him at all, his back was to me, and I was so scared It was just somebody in a man's suit.

I showed her the shower and tub, and she said, smiling, `` If you really don't mind, I think I'll get clean in the shower, then soak for a few minutes in your tub.

I dismissed these feelings as wishful thinking but I could not get it out of my head that we had a strong physical attraction for one another and we both feared to dwell on it because of our relationship.

I heard subsequently that my Uncle and Aunt had dinner in a nearby restaurant in the French Quarter after which he went home to get into his costume to keep the date.

`` Nope, just you, all the time -- sometimes I think it's the only way I'll ever get a decent partner ''.

I don't get it why this time I should pull such a stupid trick ''.

`` Well, I get it '', Artie said, still on the ladder.

Most of the time I get what I ask for ''.

`` I made you so you could stand up.

Help me up, I feel kind of stiff ''.

Far up the valley I could see the Rees circling and reorganizing.

Now under me I could see him for what he really was, a boy dressed up in streaks of paint.

I heard o' Texas cattlemen wrappin' a cow thief up in green hides and lettin' the sun shrink 'em and squeeze him to death.

I don't know what you're up to, but when Brenner '' --

`` A body would swear I floated right up here on a cloud ''!!

Just as I straightened up with my duffel bag, I heard: `` Sahjunt Yoorick, meet Mrs. Major J. A. Roebuck ''.

I let up on the accelerator, only to gradually reach again the 60 m.p.h. which would, I hoped, overhaul Herry and the blonde, and as there were cars whose drivers apparently had something more important to catch than had I, Mrs. Major Roebuck settled down to practicing on Corporal Johnson the kittenish wiles she would need when making her duty call on Colonel and Mrs. Somebody in Sante Fe.

She stood up, pulled the coat from her shoulders and started to slide it off, then let out a high-pitched scream and I let out a low-pitched, wobbling sound like a muffler blowing out.

He caught up with me once and grabbed me, but I was all covered with zing -- it's very slippery, you know ''.

I was waiting in front of it when she showed up and told me of my Uncle's indisposition.

I bent and kissed the still pink neck and suddenly she jumped up, and her two arms encircled me in a bear-like crush.

When I show up he will know you are a good wife to have told him about it ''.

A few minutes later I saw my Uncle's car drive up and a woman's figure emerge and walk to the corner.

I must say the figure was well made up.

Often, I heard my uncles and cousins speak of it when I was a small boy growing up in Rabaul.