says he. 'Poor Aleck!' So that night E. G. W. Scraggs took his cayuse and made for the railroad station, bound east.

"Aleck had give us full details. We knew all about his little town and about that house in particular; just how the morning-glories grew over the back porch, looking out on the garden patch, and where the cistern was, which, with his usual good luck, Aleck had managed to fall into, whilst they were putting a new cover on it. Yessir; we knew that little East Dakota town as well as if we'd been raised there; but we were some shy on details concerning the girl. I swear I don't believe Aleck had ever looked her full in the face. She was medium height, plump, blue eyes, brown hair, and that ended the description,

"We suffered any quantity from impatience before E. G. W. showed up. You see, there ain't such a lot that happens to other people occurrin' on a ranch, and we was really more excited over Aleck and his girl than a tenderfoot would be over a gun fight, and for the same reason; it was out of our ordinary.

"Scraggsy didn't keep us on the anxious seat. He was the surest thing I ever saw. Often I've watched him rope a critter; he never whirled his rope, even when riding—always snapped. And he never made a quick move—that is, a move that looked in a hurry—all the same, every time he let go of the rope, there was his meat on the other end of it. Women was the only thing that did E. G. W. Scraggs, and that's because he wholesaled the business. That ambition of his wrecked him. When he trotted around the track for fun, nobody else in the heat could see him for the dust.

"One evening about half-past eight, when the glow was still strong, here come Scraggs, prompt to the schedule. He was riding and a buggy trailed behind him.

"We chased Aleck over to the main house, where the old man, who stood in on the play, was to keep him busy until called for.

"Then up pulls E. G. W. and the buggy. In the buggy was a young woman, and a man.

"'Here we are,' says Scraggs, in the tone of one who has done his painful duty. 'Check the outfit—one girl and one splicer—have you kept holt of Aleck?'

"'Yes,' I says. 'We've got him—come in, folks.' I was crazy to hear how he'd pulled it off. Soon's they got inside I lugged him to the corner, leaving the other boys to welcome the guests. 'Tell me about it,' I says.

"'Short story,' says he. 'Moment I got off the choo-choo I spotted the house—couldn't mistake it. Laid low in the daytime and scouted around as soon as night come. Girl goes down to the barn and comes back with a pail of milk. I grabbed her and put my hand over her mouth so's she couldn't holler. "Now listen," I says to her. "There's a friend of mine wants to marry you. When I let you go, you'll skip into the house and pick up what clothes is handy, and you'll vamoose this ranch at quarter of eleven, sharp, so we can make the next train west. If you ain't there, or if you say a single word to a human being—you see this?" and I stuck the end of my hoss-pistol under her nose. "Well, I'll blow the head clean off your shoulders with it." Then I laid back my ears and rolled my eyes around. Well, sir, she was scart so's she didn't know anything but what I said. I hated to treat a lady like that, but if I've learned anything concerning handlin' the sect, it's this—you got to be firm. There's where I made my mistake formerly. Then I let go of her and went back to the deppo. What she thought I couldn't even guess, but I knew I was goin' to have company, and, sure enough, 'bout three minutes before train time, here comes our friend. When I got her safe aboard I told her she needn't be scart. Lots worse things could happen to her than marryin' Aleck, and she says "yessir," and she kept on sayin' "yessir" to all I told her.—Wisht I could have found one like that, instead of eighty of 'em that stood ready to jump down my throat the minute I opened my mouth.—She told me she'd had a middlin' hard time of it and didn't mind a change. That surprised me a little, because I jedged from Aleck's talk she was an upstandin' critter—but, pshaw! Aleck would think a worm was a sassy thing if it squirmed in his direction. Then I telegraphed Con Foster to have me a buggy and a minister ready for the three o'clock train, and to keep his yawp calked up. So as soon as I hit land again, there was the rig complete; we hopped in and started a-coming at once and fast, and here we are; for which I raise thanks, and all the curses of the Mormon gods be on the head of the man that gets me into such a play as this again! Snake old Aleck out and get the misery done with. That minister's chargin' me fifty cents an hour, and I don't know whether he's the real thing or not, at that. Con whispered in my ear that he worked in a grocery when he first struck town, dealt stud-poker for Johnny Early, quit that and took to school-teachin', then threw that up and preached. But what's the difference out here? He's expensive, anyhow, and all Con could find.'

"So I wagged my legs for the house and trotted Aleck down to the bull-pen.

"'Friend of yours there,' I told him.

"'That so?' says he. 'Who is it?'

"'Lady,' I says, kind of gay, thinkin' he'd be pleased.

"He stopped in his tracks. Then I remembered who I was talkin' to.

"'Come along, here, now!' says I, and nailed him by the neck. 'You ain't goin' to miss your happiness if main strength can give it to you.' His toes touched about once to the rod. I run him into the pen.

"'There,' says I, 'is somebody you know.'

"Well, sir, old Aleck looked at the gal, and the gal looked at Aleck, and the rest of us looked at each other. Soon's the kid got his breath from the shock he yells, 'I never laid eyes on that lady before!'

"Oh, Hivins, Maria! That was the awfullest minute I ever lived through. Poor old E. G. W. S.! We all turned away from him, out of pity. He had the expression of a man that's fell down a hundred-foot prospect hole and been struck by lightning before he touched bottom. He grabbed aholt of the minister and swallered and swallered, unable to chirp.

"At last he rallied. 'You mean to tell me, Aleck,' he says, in a voice hardly strong enough to get through his mustache, 'that I've made a mistake?'

"Aleck was always willing to believe he was wrong. 'I'm pretty sure, Zeke—I ain't never seen you, have I, Miss?'

"'No, sir—not that I know of,' answers the girl, with her eyes on the ground.

"E. G. W. rubbed his brow.

"'Will you make good, anyhow, Aleck?' he coaxed. 'I got the minister and all right here—it won't take a minute.'

"I'd let go of Aleck in the excitement. At these words he made one step from where he stood in the house, through the window, to ten foot out of doors, and a few more steps like that, and he was out of the question.

"Then the girl put her face in her hands and begun to cry. She was a mighty pretty, innocent, plump little thing, and we'd rather have had most anything than that she should stand there cryin'. But we were all hung by the feet and wandering in our minds. The simple life of the cow-puncher doesn't fit him to grapple with problems like that.

"Then, sir, up gets Ezekiel George Washington Scraggs, master of himself and the situation.

"'Young lady,' says he, 'I have got you out here under false pretenses. I'm as homely as a hedge fence, and my record is dotted with marriages worse than a 'Pache outbreak with corpses and burning homes. I ain't any kind of proposition to tie up to a nice girl like you, and I swear by my honor that nothing was further from my