lly with that darkly colored
good eye.

"L--lost his face?" cried Johnnie, aghast. "What y' mean, One-Eye? But
he had it this mornin'! I _saw_ it!"

"Aw, y' little jay-hawk!" returned the cowboy, fondly.

Then, excitement! In a short space of time which the Westerner described
as "two shakes o' a lamb's tail," Johnnie was garbed from hat to
leggings in a brand-new scout uniform, and was gloating and gurgling
over another _Robinson Crusoe_, another _Treasure Island_, another _Last
of the Mohicans_, another _Legends of King Arthur_, and another
_Aladdin_. Each had tinted illustrations. Each was stiff with newness,
and sweet to the smell. "And the sky-book, 'r whatever y' call it, and
the scout-book, w'y, they'll come t'morra, 'r the day after, I don't
know which. --Wal, what d' y' say?"

"I say 'Thanks'--with _all_ of me!" Johnnie answered, trembling with
earnestness. They shook hands solemnly.

"Oh, our books!" cried Grandpa. "Our nice, little soldier!" To him, the
cowboy's presents were those which had gone into the stove.

There was something in that newspaper for Johnnie to read. It was a
short announcement. This had in it no element of surprise for him, since
it told him nothing he did not already know. Nevertheless, it took his
breath away. In a column headed "_Marriages_" were two lines which read,
"_Perkins-Way: April 18, Algernon Godfrey Perkins to Narcissa Amy Way_."

"It's so!" murmured Johnnie, awed. "They're both married!" Seeing it in
print like that, the truth was clinched, being given, not only a
certainty, but a dignity and a finality only to be conveyed by type.
"One-Eye, it's _so_!"

One-Eye 'lowed it was.

"And, my goodness!" Johnnie added. "Think o' Cis havin' her name in the
paper!"

They sat for a while without speaking. Grandpa, having been generously
supplied by the cowboy with scraped apple, slept as sleeps a fed baby.
Johnnie stacked and restacked his five books, caressing them, drawing in
the fragrance of their leaves. One-Eye studied the floor and jiggled a
foot.

"Sonny," he said presently (it was plain that he had something on his
mind); "y' won't feel too down-in-the-mouth if I tell y'--tell
y'--er--aw--" The spurred foot stopped jiggling.

"What? Oh, One-Eye, y're not goin' away right off?"

"T'night."

"Oh!"

"But, shucks, I'll be sailin' back East again in no time! These Noo York
big-bugs is jes' yelpin' constant fer my polo ponies."

"I'm glad." But there was a sha