you out here?'

"'Yessir,' says she.

"'You want me, just as I stand?'

"'Yessir.'

"'Keno. I won't forget it.' Then he put his hand on her head,
took off his hat, and raised his face. 'O God!' he prays, 'you
know what a miserable time I've had in this line before. I admit
it was nine-tenths my fault, but now I call for an honest deck and
the hands played above the table. And make me act decent for the
sake of this nice little girl. Amen.' Then he pulled a
twenty-dollar gold piece out of his pocket and plunked her down
before the minister, 'Shoot,' says he. 'You're faded.'

"Well. there old Scraggs--I say 'old,' but the man weren't more
than forty--celebrated his eighty-first marriage in that old
bull-pen, and they lived as happy ever after as any story book.
Which knocks general principles. Probably it was because that no
man was ever treated whiter than she treated him, and no woman was
ever treated whiter than he treated her; he had the knack of bein'
awful good and loving to her, without being foolish. Experience
will tell, and he'd experienced a heap of the other side.

"And now, what do you think of Aleck? The scare we threw into him
that night wound up his moanin' and grievin' about the other girl.
He never cheeped once after that, but got fat and hearty, and when
I left the ranch he was makin' up to a widow with four children, as