"And some people never do learn?" Alice wanted to hear more from this
man's lips concerning the pilgrim. But the Texan mustn't know that she
wanted to hear.

"Yes, some don't learn, some only half learn, an' some learn in a way
that carries 'em along 'til it comes to a pinch--they're the worst.
But, speakin' of Win, after I caught that look, the only surprise I got
when I heard he'd killed Purdy was that he _could_ do it--not that he
_would_. Then later, under certain circumstances that come to pass in
a coulee where there was cottonwoods, him an' I got better acquainted
yet. An' then in the matter of the reservoir--but you know more about
that than I do. You see what I'm gettin' at is this: Win can saddle
his own horse, now, an' he climbs onto him from the left side. The
next time he tackles it he'll shave, an' the next time he muds up a
catch-basin he'll mud it right. Day before yesterday he was about as
useless a lookin' piece of bric-a-brac as ever draw'd breath--an' look
at him now! There ain't been any real change. The man was there all
the time, only he was so well disguised that no one ever know'd
it--himself least of all. Yesterday I saw him take a chew off Bat's
plug--an' Bat don't offer his plug promiscuous. He'll go back East,
an' the refinement will cover him up again--an' that's a damned shame.
But he won't be just the same. It won't crust over no more, because
the prejudice is gone. He's chewed the meat of the cow country--an'
he's found it good."

Later, long after the others had gone to sleep, Alice lay between her
blankets in the little shelter tent, thinking.