"E. G. W. rubbed his brow.

"'Will you make good, anyhow, Aleck?' he coaxed. 'I got the
minister and all right here--it won't take a minute.'

"I'd let go of Aleck in the excitement. At these words he made one
step from where he stood in the house, through the window, to ten
foot out of doors, and a few more steps like that, and he was out
of the question.

"Then the girl put her face in her hands and begun to cry. She was
a mighty pretty, innocent, plump little thing, and we'd rather have
had most anything than that she should stand there cryin'. But we
were all hung by the feet and wandering in our minds. The simple
life of the cow-puncher doesn't fit him to grapple with problems
like that.

"Then, sir, up gets Ezekiel George Washington Scraggs, master of
himself and the situation.

"'Young lady,' says he, 'I have got you out here under false
pretenses. I'm as homely as a hedge fence, and my record is dotted
with marriages worse than a 'Pache outbreak with corpses and
burning homes. I ain't any kind of proposition to tie up to a nice
girl like you, and I swear by my honor that nothing was further
from my thoughts than matrimony--not meanin' any slur on you, for
if I'd found you before, I might have been a happy man--Well, here
I stand: if you'll marry me, say the word!' By thunder, we gave
him a cheer that shook the roof. You can laugh if you like, but it