'May you live long and happy years together,' says the preacher,
and he had a different look on his face--more's if it was a
pleasure instead of business he was attendin' to.

"Whilest we stood there, kinder awk'ard, Charley made a high play.
He gathered all his winnings in a heap. 'For laly,' says he,
makin' her a bow.

"Maggy, she cried. Everybody'd been so good to her, she said, and
she weren't able to turn a hand for her part, and so forth, and we
was all kind of pleasantly miserable for a while, till Jim sings
out, 'Here, this ain't no weddin' hilarity--guide right to the bar!'

"There we all lined up, Charlie High-ball and all.

"'What'll you have, sir?' says Jim, askin' the minister first out
of manners.

"'The same as the rest,' says the minister like a man.

"'Mr. Scraggs?' says Jim.

"'Ginger ale, says I. And every man and woman took ginger ale,
which is a beverage that 'ud drive a man to drink. Howsomever, we
showed that preacher he didn't hold over us, speck nor color, when
it come to a showdown. And he savvied the play, too. He watched
the line drinkin' its ginger ale.

"'Gentlemen,' says he, 'I'm glad to know you--I think I'll stay in
your town a while, but now'--and he kind of twinkled around the
eyes--'I hope you will excuse me.' With that he vanished, leaving
us to take a little antidote for that there ginger ale.

"And Pete and Maggy? Well, dear friends and brothers, you never
saw nothin' like it--they think as much of each other as two men
would! And the way Pete can iron a b'iled shirt is a wonder. . . .
Yaas; he found his job at last; plain and decorative ironin'.
Often I've seen Maggy, holdin' up a batch of clo's, with pride just
oozin' out of her, and heard her say, 'There ain't a person in
these here United States that kin slip a flatiron over dry-goods
the way my Pete kin.'"

VII

THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH

"Once upon a time," said Mr. Scraggs, "there come a profound peace
on my household. It was 'Zeke, what kin I give you for dinner
to-day?' and 'Zeke' this and that, until I says to myself, 'We're
going to have cyclones followed by a heavy frost if I tarry here,'
so I pulled my freight to Arizona, till this unnatural condition of
things passed away. I understand Mrs. Scraggs in her war-paint,
but Mrs. Scraggs with her eyes uprolled to Heaven and a white dove
perched on each and every ear is a thing I'm not goin' to witness
the spoilin' of, if I kin help it.

"I l