's this to say: Nellie thar, writes to your Peggy
sweetheart, while I opens negotiations with old man Parks. I plans to
read you them replies, but after advisin' with the Doc, an' collectin'
the views of Nell, it's deemed s'fficient to tell you what you're
goin' to do, an' then head you fo'th to its accomplishment. Our
conj'int findin's, the same bein' consented to by old Parks in
writin', an' tearfully deesired by your Peggy sweetheart in what she
commoonicates to Nellie, is that you proceed at once to Sni-a-bar, an'
get them interrupted nuptials over. After which you'll be free to
return yere with your bride, an' take up the hon'rable an' useful
c'reer you've marked out. As the preesidin' officer of the Stranglers,
my word is that you be ready to start by next stage; which, onless
Monte gets so deep in licker that he tips that conveyance over a
bluff, should permit you to clasp your Peggy to your bosom an' kiss
the tears from her cheeks by the middle of next week.'

"'But,' interjects the Turner person, his voice soundin' like the
terrified bleatin' of a sheep, 'can't you-all give me no glimmer of
what's wrong that time? I don't hanker overmuch to go back in darkened
ignorance, like a lamb to the slaughter. What guarantee have I got
that old Parks won't lay for me with that bootcher knife of his'n? It
ain't fair to leave me to go knockin' about, in the midst of perils
sech as these, like a blind dog in a meat shop.'

"'Your Peggy,' returns Enright, 'encloses a letter to you by the hand
of Nellie yere, which may or may not set fo'th what insults you
perp'trates upon her fam'ly. Also, said missive furnishes the only
chance at this end of the trail of you findin' out the len'th an'
breadth of your ignorant iniquities. For myse'f, the thought of what
you-all does that time is so infooriatin' I must refuse to go over it
in words. Only, if in his first reesentments old Parks had burned you
at the stake, I would not have condemned him. As to your safety
pers'nal, you can regyard it as asshored. Your Peggy will protect you,
an' your footure parent-in-law himse'f acquits you of everything
except bein' an eediot. It's, however, got down to whether he preefers
to have a fool in his fam'ly or see his darter wretched for life, an'
he's done nerved himse'f to take the fool.'

"'Thar's your sweetheart's letter,' an' Nell puts an envelope which
smells of voylets into the Turner person's hands.

"That ondertaker reads it; an' afte