centre shot. That evening when I locked the
schoolhouse door it was for the last time, for I never unlocked it
again. My landlady, dear old womanly soul, tried hard to have me teach
the school out at least, but I didn't see it that way. The cause of
education in Kentucky might have gone straight to eternal hell, before
I'd have stayed another day in that neighborhood. I had money enough
to get to Texas with, and here I am. When a fellow gets it burnt into
him like a brand that way once, it lasts him quite a while. He 'll
feel his way next time."

"That was rather a raw deal to give a fellow," said Officer, who had
been listening while playing cards. "Didn't you never see the girl
again?"

"No, nor you wouldn't want to either if that letter had been written
to you. And some folks claim that seven is a lucky number; there were
seven boys in our family and nary one ever married."

"That experience of Fox's," remarked Honeyman, after a short silence,
"is almost similar to one I had. Before Lovell and Flood adopted me, I
worked for a horse man down on the Nueces. Every year he drove up the
trail a large herd of horse stock. We drove to the same point on the
trail each year, and I happened to get acquainted up there with a
family that had several girls in it. The youngest girl in the family
and I seemed to understand each other fairly well. I had to stay at
the horse camp most of the time, and in one way and another did not
get to see her as much as I would have liked. When we sold out the
herd, I hung around for a week or so, and spent a month's wages
showing her the cloud with the silver lining. She stood it all easy,
too. When the outfit went home, of course I went with them. I was
banking plenty strong, however, that next year, if there was a good
market in horses, I'd take her home with me. I had saved my wages and
rustled around, and when we started up the trail next year, I had
forty horses of my own in the herd. I had figured they would bring me
a thousand dollars, and there was my wages besides.

"When we reached this place, we held the herd out twenty miles, so it
was some time before I got into town to see the girl. But the first
time I did get to see her I learned that an older sister of hers, who
had run away with some renegade from Texas a year or so before, had
drifted back home lately with tears in her eyes and a big fat baby boy
in her arms. She warned me to keep away from the house, for men from
Texas