had been rubbed with rosin, and they drew the plank back and
forth over the keg. Do you know the sound made in a narrow street
by a dray loaded with strips of iron? That noise is a lullaby
compared with the staggering, blinding bellow which rose from the
keg. If you were to try it in your native town, you would not
merely be arrested, you would be hanged, and everybody would be
glad, and the clergyman would not bury you. My head, my teeth,
the whole system of my bones leaped and chattered at the din, and
out of the house like drops squirted from a lemon came a man and
his wife. No time was given them. They were swept along with the
rest; and having been routed from their own bed, they now became
most furious in assailing the remaining homes of Medicine Bow.
Everybody was to come out. Many were now riding horses at top
speed out into the plains and back, while the procession of the
plank and keg continued its work, and the fiddlers played
incessantly.

Suddenly there was a quiet. I did not see who brought the
message; but the word ran among us that there was a woman--the
engineer's woman down by the water-tank--very sick. The doctor
had been to see her from Laramie. Everybody liked the engineer.
Plank and keg were heard no more. The horsemen found it out and
restrained their gambols. Medicine Bow went gradually home. I saw
doors shutting, and lights go out; I saw a late few reassemble at
the card tables, and the drummers gathered themselves together
for sleep; the proprietor of the store (you could not see a more
respectable-looking person) hoped that I would be comfortable on
the quilts; and I heard Steve urging the Virginian to take one
more glass.