fall there came an early squall of Squaw winter, sleeted and spit
snow wickedly. The next morning there wasn't a hoof in sight, and
shortly after daybreak we were riding deep in our saddles to
catch the lead drift of our cattle. After a hard day's ride, we
found that we were out several hundred head, principally
yearlings of the through Texas stock. You all know how locoed a
bunch of dogies can get--we hunted for three days and for fifty
miles in every direction, and neither hide, hair, nor hoof could
we find. It was while we were hunting these cattle that my yarn
commences.

"The big augers of the outfit lived in Wichita, Kansas. Their
foreman, Bibleback Hunt, and myself were returning from hunting
this missing bunch of yearlings when night overtook us, fully
twenty-five miles from camp. Then this Bull Foot stage came to
mind, and we turned our horses and rode to it. It was nearly dark
when we reached it, and Bibleback said for me to go in and make
the talk. I'll never forget that nice little woman who met me at
the door of that sod shack. I told her our situation, and she
seemed awfully gracious in granting us food and shelter for the
night. She told us we could either picket our horses or put them
in the corral and feed them hay and grain from the
stage-company's supply. Now, old Bibleback was what you might
call shy of women, and steered clear of the house until she sent
her little boy out and asked us to come in. Well, we sat around
in the room, owly-like, and to save my soul from the wrath to
come, I couldn't think of a word that was proper to say to the
little woman, busy getting supper. Bibleback was worse off than I
was; he couldn't do anything but look at the pictures on the
wall. What was worrying me was, had she a husband? Or what was