Blue Bonnet Read Online Free PDF Page B

wife, he
was ready to start his search. He intended to study the single
women around town whenever he had a chance meeting with
one.
    Monday morning, he stopped at the
Mercantile to buy two pounds of staples to take to the ranch for
fence fixing.
    Morgan, Daniel Johnson's daughter,
waited on him. She was about twenty five years younger than Bat,
with light brown hair and average height for a female. Seeing as
how he'd known her forever and watched her grow up, he just never
thought about her as wife material.
    She was as natural a fixture in
Johnson's Mercantile as the counter she always stood behind to wait
on customers. Bat couldn't hardly remember back to when she hadn't
worked for her father, clerking in his store. In the beginning, she
was barely tall enough to see over the counter.
    Morgan had never married, but for
some reason, he'd not taken the time to notice her before in that
new wife sort of way.
    “Morning, Mr. Kayhill,” Morgan
said briskly as he stepped up to the counter.
    “Mornin', Ma'am,” he answered back
with a polite tug on the brim of his hat.
    The buxom woman asked, “What can I
do for you this fine day?”
    “I need two
pounds of staples,” he answered.
    As he observed the clerk closely,
Bat found himself wondering if that young woman ever smiled. Maybe
she just reserve a pleasant face for certain people she liked.
Customers like him must not count.
    “All right, just give me a minute
to weight them out and sack them up,” Morgan said
crisply.
    Efficiently fast, she picked up
the metal scoop that rested on top of the wooden barrel of staples.
She wiggled the scoop back and forth to get it to dig into the pile
and fill up. As she spilled the staples on the scale, they
clattered when metal hit metal.
    Bat smiled at her and
complemented, “Well, anyone could tell you've done that a time or
two.”
    All business, Morgan nodded as she
sacked the staples for him in a small burlap bag. She handed the
sack to Bat and asked, “Will there be anything else, Mr.
Kayhill?”
    “Nope, reckon not,” Bat returned.
“How much do I owe ya?”
    Morgan held her hand out. “That
will be ten cents.”
    Bat reached into his jeans pocket
and brought out a hand full of change. He picked out two nickels
and placed them on the palm of Morgan's hand.
    “Thank you, Mr. Kayhill.” She
dropped the nickels in the cash register till. “Good day, Mr.
Kayhill,” she said and turned her back. She picked up a rag and
dusted the can goods on the shelf behind the counter.
    Bat walked outside into the
sunlight. He felt as if he'd need more than a might of warmth from
the sun's rays. It might take a stiff drink to warm him so he'd get
over the chill he just went through in the store.
    No wonder that young woman was a
spinster. She was business like and courteous but without a warm,
friendly bone in her whole body. If he had made a list of women to
check out to find someone to marry, she'd be the first one he'd
mark off the list.
    Bat got on his horse and rode to
his sister's house. She'd already sent word to the livery stable
hostler to park her buggy in front of the house. He tied his horse
on the back of the buggy and headed to the house. With his head
stuck in the front door, he called, “Sis, are ya ready?”
    “Sure am,” Billie said tying her
bonnet.
    “I need to carry anythin,?” Bat
asked.
    “Thanks anyway, but I'm way ahead
of you. I've already taken a couple boxes of cleaning supplies out
to the buggy.”
    “I saw that,” Bat
replied.
    “I'm assuming there's still a
fairly decent broom and mop at the house,” Billie said, raising an
eyebrow.
    “Of course.” Bat said slowly and
paused to think. He began again. “I guess there is. Well, there
should be. To tell ya the truth, I've never noticed since that
wasn't my department.” Bat grinned at her.
    “Wait here,” Billie said. She came
back carrying a broom in one hand and mop in the other. “I'd better
be safe rather than sorry. It's too far back to