se law sharps,' explains Texas, when we're organized all sociable
in the Red Light, an' Black Jack's come through on right an' reg'lar
lines, 'allows it's Ed's dyin' reequest that I take an' ride paternal
herd on this infant child.'

"'But how about its mother?' urges Enright.

"'Which it ain't got none. Its mother dies two years ago. Now Ed's
packed in, that baby's been whipsawed; it's a full-fledged orphan,
goin' an' comin'.'

"'Ain't thar no rel'tives on the mother's side?' asks Nell, from over
back of Cherokee's lay out.

"'Meanest folks, Nellie,' says Texas, 'bar none, between the Colorado
an' the Mississippi. You see they're kin to my Laredo wife, me an' Ed
both marryin' into the same tribe. Which it shows the Thompson
intell'gence. Thar ain't a Thompson yet who don't need a guardeen
constant.'

"After no end of discussion that a-way it's onderstood to be the
gen'ral notion that Texas ought to bring Ed's orphan baby to
Wolfville.

"'But s'ppose,' says Texas, 'that in spite of Ed wantin' me to cast my
protectin' pinions over this yere infant, its mother's outfit,
thinkin' mebby to shake me down for some _dinero_, objects?'

"'In which case,' says Boggs, who's plumb interested, 'you sends for
me, Texas, an' we mavericks it. You ain't goin' to let no sech callous
an' onfeelin' gang as your wife's folks go 'round dictatin' about Ed's
Annalinda child, be you, an' givin' you a stand-off? Which you're
only tryin' to execoote Ed's dying behests.'

"It's settled final that Texas, ag'inst whatever opp'sition, has got
to bring on Annalinda to us. That disposed of, it next comes
nacherally up as a question how, when we gets Annalinda safe to
Wolfville, she's goin' to be took care of.

"'Which the O. K. Restauraw won't do,' Texas says, lookin' anxious out
of the tail of his eye at Enright an' Peets. 'Mind, I ain't hintin'
nothin' ag'inst Missis Rucker, who hasn't got her Southwest equal at
flapjacks, but I submits that for a plastic child that a-way, at a
time when it receives impressions easy, to daily witness the way she
maltreats Rucker, is to go givin' that infant wrong idees of what's
coming to husbands as a whole. I'm a hard man, gents; but I don't aim
to bring up this yere Annalinda baby so that one day she's encouraged
to go handin' out the racket to some onforchoonate sport, which my
Laredo wife hands me.'

"'Thar's reasons other than Missis Rucker,' Enright is quick to
observe, 'why the O. K. House ain'