"She's--she's twenty-two--"

"Inches around or what?" Charley gasped.

"--and Ophelia is coming with her--Ophelia Cobb--C-o-double-b it is--is
coming with her for a chaperon--"

"Great guns!" Skinny breathed,"--two females!"

"Hold still and I'll read it--no, you do it, Parker--I'm too full of
emotion--my voice'd quiver--"

Parker read:

"Josiah Heck, Eagle Butte, Texas:

"Am sending my daughter, Carolyn June, out to your ranch
for a while. She needs a change. She has broke all the
he-human hearts in Hartville--that is all of them old
enough or young enough to be broke--and is what's called
a love-stimulator and won't settle. She is twenty-two
and it's time she was calmed. Hoping six months on the
Kiowa range will gentle her quite a lot, I am
sympathetically your 1/2 brother, Simeon.

"P.S.--Mrs. Ophelia Cobb, a lady widow, is coming with
her for a chaperon. Beware of both of them. They will
arrive at Eagle Butte the 21st.--S."