Letty heard the sound of hooves before she saw Ruth. The mule trotted along the river, Festus peering around, and the little girl hid behind a cottonwood. For a moment she was tempted to run, but she remembered how good Festus was with his lasso. She started to climb the tree.
Festus spotted her and jumped off his mule. "Letty! You come down from there!"
She kept climbing. "No!"
Festus walked over and glared up into the tree. "Are you comin' down or am I comin' up? You make me climb up there and I'll thump you for sure!"
"Go away!"
Festus sighed and sat down to take off his spurs, then took a grip on a branch and swung himself into the tree. Letty climbed higher and the hillman's mouth went dry. She was already at least thirty feet off the ground. "Letty!"
"Go away! I hate you!" The child clung to the trunk and looked down, her eyes enormous. Festus climbed cautiously to within a few feet of her and she kicked at him, then slipped. "FESTUS!"
Letty fell and the hillman lunged desperately, catching her with one hand. The sudden shock almost pulled him down too and he grimaced as his other hand took their combined weight. Gritting his teeth, he dragged her up beside him. "You all right, Letty?" She gulped and nodded. "Can you be a good girl and climb down now?" She nodded again and started down, Festus following her.
They reached the ground and he cradled his wrist, wincing. Letty gasped. "Festus, you're bleeding!"
"What?" He became aware that his face stung and he touched it and looked at his reddened fingers. "Musta scraped m'self when you fell." He sat down and Letty stared at his swollen wrist.
"Your arm's hurt too."
"Don't you worry 'bout that. That's just a sprain."
Letty burst into tears. "I'm sorry, Festus."
"Now don't you go to faunchin' and bellerin'. I ain't hurt much. Doc'll fix me up quicker'n you can say rat run over the roof of the house with a piece of raw liver in his mouth." Letty giggled and the hillman asked sternly, "What wuz you doin' way out here when you know you wuz s'posed to catch that train today?"
Letty's eyes filled with tears again and she crawled into Festus' lap. "I don't want to go away. My mommy died and my daddy died and I don't have anybody but you and I don't want to go away!" Her tears soaked the hillman's shirt and he wrapped his arms around her and rocked her until she stopped crying.
"I don't want you to go away either, honey. Fact is, I wisht I could keep you with me and sorta be your pa." Letty looked at him with her mouth open and Festus hugged her tightly. "I just want the best for you because I love you, Letty."
"If you loved me, you wouldn't send me away."
A single tear rolled down the hillman's cheek. "I almost b'lieve yore right."
The little girl wiped away the tear. "Do you really love me, Festus?"
"I really do."
She settled against his chest, worn out with emotion. "I love you too, Festus." The hillman stood up and walked over to Ruth, then started for town. Before they had gone a mile, Letty was asleep in his arms.