by the fortuitous fact that Melissa
ran as chambermaid on the steamboat _Jessie B._ The fact outstanding,
though, was that Red Hoss, having ardently wooed, seemed now about to
win.

But Melissa, that comely and comfortable person, remained practical even
when most loving. The grandeur of Red Hoss' dress-up clothes may have
entranced her, and certainly his conversational brilliancy was
altogether in his favor, but beyond the glamour of the present, Melissa
had the vision to appraise the possibilities of the future. Before
finally committing herself to the hymeneal venture she required it of
her swain that he produce and place in her capable hands for
safe-keeping, first, the money required to purchase the license; second,
the amount of the fee for the officiating clergyman; and third, cash
sufficient to pay the expenses of a joint wedding journey to St. Louis
and return. It was specified that the traveling must be conducted on a
mutual basis, which would require round-trip tickets for both of them.
Melissa, before now, had heard of these one-sided bridal tours. If Red
Hoss went anywhere to celebrate being married she meant to go along with
him.

Altogether, under these headings, a computed aggregate of at least
eighty dollars was needed. With his eyes set then on this financial
goal, Red Hoss sought service in the marts of trade. Perhaps the
unwonted eagerness he displayed in this regard may have been quickened
by the prospect that the irksomeness of employment before marriage would
be made up to him after the event in a vacation more prolonged than any
his free spirit had ever known. Still, that part of it is none of our
affair. For our purposes it is sufficient to record that the campaign
for funds had progressed to a point where practically fifty per cent of
the total specified by his prudent inamorata already had been earned,
collected and, in accordance with the compact, intrusted to the
custodianship of one who was at once fiancee and trustee.

On a fine autumnal day Red Hoss made a beginning at the task of amassing
the remaining half of the prenuptial sinking fund by accepting an
assignment to deliver a milch cow, newly purchased by Mr. Dick Bell, to
Mr. Bell's dairy farm three miles from town on the Blandsville Road.
This was a form of toil all the more agreeable to Red Hoss--that is to
say, if any form of toil whatsoever could be deemed agreeable to
him--since cows when traveling from place to place are accu