the face.

"Don't tell me a word, sis," says I. "I'm not so hard as you think."

"He's coming over tonight," says Bonnie Bell to me after a time.

"That's to get his answer?" asts I; and she nodded then.

"Well, Colonel," says I to the old man that evening when he come in and
we was having a nip before dinner, "I reckon I got this thing all fixed
up at last. It's been a hard pull for me, being half a pa to a girl like
ours; but I done it."

"Is that so, Curly?" says he. "Well, it's been some chore, ain't it, for
both of us? Well, how!"

When Old Man Wright taken a drink he never did say "Here's how!" He just
said "How!" which is Western. When a man says "Here's how!" he comes
from the East and is trying his best to hide it.

"How!" says I. "And a good health to the young and happy couple."

"What's that?" says he, sudden. "Has anything happened? She hasn't said
anything to me. Why is she so tight-mouthed with me, Curly, and so free
with you?"

"Oh, it's a way I have with women," says I.

"They all come and tell me their troubles. It's because I got red hair
and a open countenance."

"Tell me, what's my girl confided to your red hair and open face?" says
he. "I'd like to know."

"You notice a good many flowers around the last few weeks?" says I.

"I haven't noticed nothing else," says he.

"And that didn't make nothing occur to your mind?"

"Oh, yes, it did; only I didn't want to say anything to the kid--I
didn't want to try to influence her in any way, shape or manner, in a
time like this. Only I told her quite a while ago that Tom Kimberly was
the only young man I seen in town that I'd allow to come around at all.
I only said to her that the old man was my best friend and I liked Tom's
ma as much as I could any woman with gray hair.

"Still, I said gray hair was all right for a grandma. Why, Curly," says
he, "I been plumb thoughtful and tactful. I ain't said a word to let
Bonnie Bell know what I thought about Tom Kimberly. I believe in leaving
a young girl plumb free to follow her own mind and heart."

"Uh-huh! Yes, you do!" says I. "The truth is, Colonel, you believe in
running the whole ranch here like you done out West. Now if you'd only
keep out of this game and leave me alone in it you'd find things would
come out a heap better," says I.

"But I just said I ain't said a word," says he. "She can do whatever she
likes about getting married----"

"Just so she married Tom Kimberly," says I. "Ai