broke for no such lopsided foolishness as side-saddles. But you see she
does it becomin’, and that’s where the grudge comes in. You can’t stir
about these foot-hills without coming across a woman, like as not, holdin’
on to a posse of kids, and ridin’ clothes-pin fashion in a looped-up
skirt; when she sees you comin’ she’ll p’r’aps upset a kid or two
assoomin’ a decorous attitood. That’s feemi_nine_, and as such is approved
by the ladies, but"—and here Leander put his head on one side and gave a
grotesque impression of outraged decorum—"pants is considered unwomanly."

"Leander! Leander!" came in accusing accents from the kitchen.

"Run!" gasped Mrs. Dax’s handmaiden; "don’t let her catch us chinnin’."

Mary Carmichael ran round one side of the house as she was bidden, but,
like Lot’s wife, could not resist the temptation of looking back. Leander,
with incredible rapidity, grabbed two clothes-pins off the line, clutched
a dish-towel, shook it. "Comin’! comin’!" he called, as he went through
the farce of rehanging it.

The lonesomeness of plain and foot-hill, the utter lack of the human
element that gives to this country its character of penetrating
desolation, had been changed while Mary Carmichael forgathered with
Leander by the clothes-line. From the four quarters of the compass, men in
sombreros, flannel shirts, and all manner of strange habiliments came
galloping over the roads as if their horses were as keen on reaching Dax’s
as their riders. They came towards the house at full tilt, their horses
stretching flat with ears laid back viciously, and Mary, who was unused to
the tricks of cow-ponies, expected to see them ride through the front
door, merely by way of demonstrating their sense of humor. Not so; the
little pintos, buckskins, bays, and chestnuts dashed to the door and