brand onto her; but she learns that Bill Jenks marks 150 calves the
last spring round-up, an' me only forty, an' that settles it; she
takes Jenks.

"It's astonishin' how little I deems of this yere maiden after Bill
gets her. Two months before, I'd rode my pony to death to look once
in her eyes. She's like sunshine in the woods to me, an' I dotes on
every word she utters like it's a roast apple. But after she gets to
be Bill's wife I cools complete.

"Not that lovin' Bill's wife, with his genius for shootin' a pistol,
is goin' to prove a picnic,--an' him sorter peevish an' hostile
nacheral. But lettin' that go in the discard, I shore don't care
nothin' about her nohow when she's Bill's.

"I recalls that prior to them nuptials with Bill I gets that locoed
lovin' this girl I goes bulgin' out to make some poetry over her. I
compiles one stanza; an' I'm yere to remark it's harder work than a
June day in a brandin' pen. Ropin' an' flankin' calves an' standin'
off an old cow with one hand while you irons up her offspring with
t'other, from sun-up till dark, is sedentary compared to makin'
stanzas. What was the on I makes? Well, you can bet a hoss I ain't
forgot it none.

"'A beautiful woman is shorely a moon, The nights of your life to
illoomine; She's all that is graceful, guileful an' soon, Is woman,
lovely woman.'

"I'm plumb tangled up in my rope when I gets this far, an' I takes a
lay-off. Before I gathers strength to tackle it ag'in, Jenks gets