The cowboy watched his expenses become comprehensible for the first time in years.
One evening, he entered the kitchen carrying an envelope.
He placed it beside her ledger.
She opened it.
Inside was her first wage payment.
She counted the money.
Then she looked up.
“This is too much.”
“No.”
“We agreed on less.”
“You saved me more than I expected.”
She frowned.
“That doesn't mean you should ignore our agreement.”
He smiled.
“Then consider it a bonus.”
She studied him.
“Are you always this stubborn?”
“Only when I'm right.”
She laughed.
“Then you must be stubborn quite often.”
The cowboy leaned against the doorway.
“Depends who you ask.”
The housekeeper began treating the woman like a member of the household.
She asked for help planning meals and occasionally requested advice about household purchases.
The ranch hands quickly learned that the newcomer could calculate their wages faster than the cowboy.
They also discovered that she had a sharp sense of humor.
One afternoon, the younger ranch hand complained that the cowboy had paid him for only five days of work.
The woman examined the schedule.
“You worked four.”
The young man looked offended.
“I was here all week.”
“You were here Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.”
“What about Wednesday?”
She looked at him.
“You spent Wednesday in town courting the blacksmith's daughter.”
The older ranch hand burst out laughing.
The younger man turned red.
The woman smiled sweetly.
“Would you like me to charge you for the horse you borrowed?”
The young man shook his head.
“No, ma'am.”
“Then four days it is.”
The cowboy laughed so hard that he had to sit down.
The woman pretended to be offended.
“I don't see what's amusing. Accurate accounting is a serious profession.”
The cowboy wiped his eyes.
“I wouldn't dream of arguing.”
That evening, the younger ranch hand brought her a small bunch of wildflowers as an apology.
She accepted them warmly.
By the end of the second week, the ranch felt different.
The kitchen table was covered with organized ledgers instead of scattered bills.
The storeroom had been inventoried.