I'd sent up to the State and
got me a white shirt and a standing collar and a red necktie. You
galoots out-hold me on togs. But where I was raised, back down in Palo
Pinto County, Texas, I was some punkins as a ladies' man myself--you
hear me."

"Oh, you look all right," said Edwards. "You would look all right with
only a cotton string around your neck."

After tending to our horses, we all went into the house. There sat
Miller talking to the bride just as if he had known her always, with
Jack standing with his back to the fire, grinning like a cat eating
paste. The neighbor girls fell to getting supper, and our cook turned
to and helped. We managed to get fairly well acquainted with the
company by the time the meal was over. The fiddlers came early, in
fact, dined with us. Jack said if there were enough girls, we could
run three sets, and he thought there would be, as he had asked every
one both sides of the creek for five miles. The beds were taken down
and stowed away, as there would be no use for them that night.

The company came early. Most of the young fellows brought their best
girls seated behind them on saddle horses. This manner gave the girl a
chance to show her trustful, clinging nature. A horse that would carry
double was a prize animal. In settling up a new country, primitive
methods crop out as a matter of necessity.

Ben Thorn, an old-timer in the Strip, called off. While the company
was gathering, the fiddlers began to tune up, which sent a thrill
through us. When Ben gave the word, "Secure your pardners for the
first quadrille," Miller led out the bride to the first position in
the best room, Jack's short leg barring him as a participant. This was
the signal for the rest of us, and we fell in promptly. The fiddles
struck up "Hounds in the Woods," the prompter's voice rang out "Honors
to your pardner," and the dance was on.

Edwards close-herded the black-eyed girl till supper time. Not a one
of us got a dance with her even. Mouse admitted next day, as we rode
home, that he squeezed her hand several times in the grand right and
left, just to show her that she had other admirers, that she needn't
throw herself away on any one fellow, but it was no go. After supper
Billy corralled her in a corner, she seeming willing, and stuck to her
until her brother took her home nigh daylight.

Jack got us boys pardners for every dance. He proved himself clean
strain that night, the whitest little Injun on the