the next deal.

"Well, if I was, I hung up my gentle honk before his eyes and ears and
gave him free license to call it. The truth is, I didn't pay any more
attention to him than I would to an empty bottle. I reckon the girl
was all right, but the family were these razor-backed, barnyard
savages. It makes me hot under the collar yet when I think of it.
They'd have lawed me if I had, but I ought to have shot him and
checked the breed."

"Why didn't you run off with her?" inquired Fox, dryly.

"Well, of course a man of your nerve is always capable of advising
others. But you see, I'm strong on the breed. Now a girl can't show
her true colors like the girl's brother did, but get her in the
harness once, and then she'll show you the white of her eye, balk, and
possibly kick over the wagon tongue. No, I believe in the
breed--blood'll tell."

"I worked for a cowman once," said Bull, irrelevantly, "and they told
it on him that he lost twenty thousand dollars the night he was
married."

"How, gambling?" I inquired.

"No. The woman he married claimed to be worth twenty thousand dollars
and she never had a cent. Spades trump?"

"No; hearts," replied The Rebel. "I used to know a foreman up in
DeWitt County,--'Honest' John Glen they called him. He claimed the