ll me you
were coming up?" He grinned with what seemed to us bad taste.

When we got down across the foot-hills and into the broad white street
of Heart's Desire, we espied a dark figure slowly approaching. It
proved to be Tom Osby, who later declared that he had found himself
unable to sleep. He had things in his pockets. By common consent we
now turned our footsteps across the _arroyo_, toward the cabin where
dwelt the family from Kansas.

The house of the man from Leavenworth was lighted as though for some
function. There were no curtains at the windows, and even had there
been, the shock of this spectacle which went on before our eyes would
have been sufficient to set aside all laws and conventions. With hands
in pockets we stood and gazed blankly in at the open window. There was
a sound of revelry by night. The narrow Mexican fireplace again held
abundance of snapping, sparkling, crooked pinon wood. The table was
spread. At its head sat the next postmaster; near him a lately
sorrowful but now smiling lady, his wife, the woman from Kansas. The
elder daughter was busy at the fire. At the right of the man from
Leavenworth sat none less than Curly, the same whose cow pony, with
bridle thrown down over its head, now stood nodding in the bright flood
of the moonlight of Heart's Desire. At the side of Curly was the
Littlest Girl from Kansas, and she was looking into his eyes.

It was thus that the social compact was first set on in the valley of
Heart's Desire.

A vast steaming fragrance arose from the bowl which stood at the head
of the table. In the home of the girl from Kansas there was light,
warmth, comfort, joy. It was Christmas, after all.

"By the great jumpin' Jehossophat!" said Tom Osby, "them's _our_
oysters!"

"And to think," mused Dan Anderson, softly, as we turned away,--"we
_fried_ ours!"

CHAPTER III

TRANSGRESSION AT HEART'S DESIRE

_Beginning the Cause Celebre which arose from Curly's killing the Pig
of the Man from Kansas_

A great many abdomens have been injured in the pastime known as the
"double roll." Especially has this been the case with persons not
native to the land of Heart's Desire or the equivalent thereof. Even
those born to the manner, and possessed of the freedom of a vast
landscape whose every particular was devoted to the behoof of any man
seized with a purpose of attaining speed and efficiency with firearms,
did not always reach that smoothness and p