Elizabeth Marvel

40-Year-Old Mattie says: (first lines) People do not give it credence that a young girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to average to her father's blood. But it did happen. I was just fourteen years of age when a coward by the name of Tom Chaney shot my father down and robbed him of his life and his horse and two California gold pieces that he carried in his trouser band. Chaney was a hired man and Papa had taken him up to Fort Smith to help lead back a string of Mustang ponies he'd bought. In town, Chaney had fallen to drink and cards and lost all his money. He got it into his head he was bein' cheated and went back to the boardin' house for his Henry rifle. When Papa tried intervene, Chaney shot him. Chaney fled. He could have walked his horse, for not a soul in that city could not be bothered to give chase. No doubt Chaney fancied himself scot-free. But he was wrong. You must pay for everything in this world, one way and another. There is nothin' free, except the grace of God.