avoided them in search of my
employer, finding him and Gallup at an outhouse holding a hound while
Scales was taking a few stitches in an ugly cut which the dog had
received from a _javeline_. Paying no attention to the two boys, I gave
him the news, and bluntly informed him that Esther and I expected to
marry in May.

"Bully for you, Tom," said he. "Here, hold this fore foot, and look out
he don't bite you. So she'll get her divorce at the May term, and then
all outdoors can't stand in your way the next time. Now, that means that
you'll have to get out fully two hundred more of those building rock,
for your cottage will need three rooms. Take another stitch, knot your
thread well, and be quick about it. I tell you the _javeline_ were
pretty fierce; this is the fifth dog we've doctored since we returned."

On freeing the poor hound, we both looked the pack over carefully, and
as no others needed attention, Aaron and Glenn were excused. No sooner
were they out of hearing than I suggested that the order be made for
five hundred stone, as no doubt John Cotton would also need a cottage
shortly after Lent. The old matchmaker beamed with smiles. "Is that
right, Tom?" he inquired. "Of course, you boys tell each other what you
would hardly tell me. And so they have made the riffle at last? Why, of
course they shall have a cottage, and have it so near that I can hear
the baby when it cries. Bully for tow-headed John. Oh, I reckon Las
Palomas is coming to the front this year. Three new cottages and three
new brides is not to be sneezed at! Does your mistress know all this
good news?"

I informed him that I had not seen Miss Jean to speak to since the
funeral, and that Cotton wished his intentions kept a secret. "Of
course," he said; "that's just like a sap-headed youth, as if getting
married was anything to be ashamed of. Why, when I was the age of you
boys I'd have felt proud over the fact. Wants it kept a secret, does he?
Well, I'll tell everybody I meet, and I'll send word to the ferry and to
every ranch within a hundred miles, that our John Cotton and Frank Vaux
are going to get married in the spring. There's nothing disgraceful in
matrimony, and I'll publish this so wide that neither of them will dare
back out. I've had my eye on that girl for years, and now when there's a
prospect of her becoming the wife of one of my boys, he wants it kept a
secret? Well, I don't think it'll keep."

After that I felt more comfortable o