he right thing:
put up the rail he held, and saved the day's work. The cattle were
still safe, but Sam lay there in the dust, motionless.

Before any of them had appreciated what had happened, Alice was down,
and, seizing Sam by the shoulders, had dragged him to the fence.
Halbert, horrified to see her actually in the presence of the cattle,
leaped after her, put Sam through the rails, and lifted her up to her
old post on the top. In another instant the beasts swept furiously
round the yard, just over the place where they had been standing.

They gathered round Sam, and for an instant thought he was dead; but
just as Jim hurriedly knelt down, and raising his head began to untie
his handkerchief, Sam uprose, and, shaking himself and dusting his
clothes, said,--

"If it had been any other beast which knocked me down but that poley
heifer, I should have been hurt;" and then said that "it was
bathing-time, and they must look sharp to be in time for dinner:" three
undeniable facts, showing that, although he was a little unsteady on
his legs, his intellect had in nowise suffered.

And Halbert, glancing at Alice, saw something in her face that made him
laugh; and, dressing for dinner in Jim's room, he said to that young
gentleman,--

"Unless there are family reasons against it, Jim, which of course I
can't speak about, you know, I should say that you would have Sam for
your brother-in-law in a very short time."

"Do you really think so, now?" said Jim; "I rather fancied she had
taken up with Cecil. I like Sam's fist, mind you, better than Cecil's
whole body, though he is a good little fellow, too."

"She has been doing that, I think, rather to put Sam on his mettle; for
I think he was taking things too easy with her at first; but now, if
Cecil has any false hopes, he may give them up; the sooner the better.
No woman who was fancy free could stand seeing that noble head of Sam's
come rolling down in the dust at her feet; and what courage and skill
he exhibited, too! Talk of bull-fights! I have seen one. Bah! it is
like this nail-brush to a gold watch, to what I saw to-day. Sam, sir,
has won a wife by cattledrafting."

"If that is the case," said Jim, pensively brushing his hair, "I am
very glad that Cecil's care for his fine clothes prevented his coming
into the yard; for he is one of the bravest, coolest hands among
cattle, I know; he beats me."

"Then he beats a precious good fellow, Jim. A man who could make such