's
what made me take a shine to 'er."

"You wouldn't want her to back Barden up." Mose made the suggestion
preoccupiedly, with his eyes discreetly wandering over the landscape, as
if he had suddenly missed some accustomed feature of it.

Parker lowered the glass and glanced at him suspiciously. "No, sir-ee!
If there's any backin' done there, Barden'll do it. She'll make 'im
crawfish out o' sight when she ketches 'im. That's another thing I like
about 'er; she'll stand up fer a feller; that is, fer any feller that
b'longs to 'er--that is, I mean, fer a feller she b'longs to."

Mose got up and turned around, and brushed the burr-clover from his
overalls.

"Well, I guess I must be movin'," he said, with a highly artificial
yawn. "Come here, you Muggins!" he called to his burro, which had
strayed into the alfilaria. "Give me an invite to the weddin', Parker.
I'll send you a fresh cow if you do."

Parker held the glass between his knees, and looked down at it with
gratified embarrassment.

"There's a good deal to be gone through with yet, Mose," he said
dubiously. "I set up here with this yer field-glass, workin' myself up
to it, an' then I go down there, an' she comes at me so brash I get all
rattled, an' come home 'thout 'complishin' anythin'. But I'll make it
yet," he added, with renewed cheerfulness. "She sewed a button on fer me
t' other day. Now, between ourselves, Mose, don't ye think that's kind
o' hopeful?"

Hopeful! Mose would say it was final. No girl had ever sewed a button on
for him. When one did, he would propose to her on the spot. He wondered
what Parker was thinking of not to seize such an opportunity.

"That's what I had ought to 'a' done," acknowledged Parker, shaking his
head ruefully. "Yes, sir; that's what I'd ought to 'a' done. I had ought
to 'a' seized that opportunity an' pressed my suit."

"That's the idea, Park," said his companion gravely, as he bestrode
Muggins, and jerked the small dejected creature out into the trail.
"You'd ought to 'a' pressed your suit; there's nothin' a woman likes
better 'n pressin' your suit. Whoop-la, Muggins!"

Some time after Mose had disappeared up the canon, Parker heard a loud
echoing laugh. He turned his head to listen, and then raised the glass
and leveled it on Starkweather's ranch.

"I thought at first that was Idy," he said to himself, "but it wa'n't.
She 's got a cheerful disposition, but I don't believe she'd laugh that
a-way when she's a-learn