"'No,' says Moore, "t'ain't quite sech ancient hist'ry. It's stage
coaches. Thar's a passel of people down yere as allows you've been
rustlin' the mails.'

"Old Man Rucker, who keeps the O. K. House, is away when Moore
rounds up his party. But Missis Rucker's thar, an' the way that old
lady talks to Enright an' the committee is a shame. She comes over
to the store, too, along of Moore an' Cherokee, an' prances in an'
comes mighty near stampedin' the whole outfit.

"'See yere, Sam Enright,' she shouts, wipin' her hands on her bib,
'what be you-alls aimin' for to do? Linin' up, I s'pose to hang the
only decent man in town?'

"'Ma'am,' says Enright, 'this yere sharp is 'cused of standin' up
the stage them times recent over by Tucson. Do you know anythin'
about it?'

"'No; I don't,' says Missis Rucker. 'You don't reckon, now, I did it
none, do you? I says this, though; it's a heap sight more likely
some drunkard a-settin' right yere on this committee stops them
stages than Cherokee Hall.'

"'Woman's nacher's that emotional,' says Enright to the rest of us,
'she's oncapable of doin' right. While she's the loveliest of
created things, still sech is the infirmities of her intellects,
that gov'ment would bog down in its most important functions, if
left to woman.'

"'Bog down or not,' says Missis Rucker, gettin' red an' heated, 'you