And inside, there was Macie, a-settin' in her rocker in front of the fire. On the other side was the President of the Briggs City Pott'ry Works.

"Boss," I says, as I shook hands with him, "Boss, I've come fer you'

little gal." Say! it took him quick, like a st.i.tch in the side. "Fer my gal?" he kinda stammers.

"Why--why, Alec,----" she whispers to me.

"Sewell," I goes on, "when I ast you fer her, a while back, you said, 'Git a piece of land as big as the Andrews chunk.' Wal," (I handed out my deed) "would you mind lookin' at this?"

"It's yourn!" The ole man put his hands to his haid.

"Also," I says, rattlin' the little stack of twenties in my right-hand britches pocket, "I'm fixed t' git some cows; fifty 'r so--a start, boss, just a start."

"How'd you do it! Why, I'm plumb knocked silly!"

"But you' ain't the man to go back on you' word, Sewell. I can take good keer of Mace now--and I want to be friends with the man that's goin' to be my paw."

He begun to look at me, awful steady and sober, and he looked and he looked--like as if he hadn't just savvied. Next, he sorta talked to hisself. "My little Macie," he kept sayin'; "my little Macie."

She put her arms 'round him then, and he clean broke down. "Aw, I _cain't_ lose my little gal," he says. "I don't keer anythin' about land 'r cattle. But Macie--she's all I got left. _Don't_ take her away from me!"

So _that_ was it! (And I'd said that all Sewell keered fer was money.) "Boss," I says, "you mean you'd like us to live here--with you?"

He come over to me, tremblin' like he had the ague. "Would y', Cupid?" he ast. "I'd never interfere with you two none. _Would_ y'?"

"Aw, daddy!" says Mace, holdin' to him tight.

"Why, bless you' heart, Sewell," I answers, "what do I want to live any _other_ place fer? _Mace_ is what I want--just Mace. And, say! you take back you' little ole crick-bottom."

"Got more land'n I want _now._"

"Boss,"--I helt out my hand--"here's where you git a new son-in-law, and a foreman fer keeps on cow-punch pay. Shake!"

He give one hand to Mace, and he give me the other. "Not by a long shot, Cupid!" he says. "Here's where I git a half-_pardner._"

So here I am--settled down at the ole Bar Y. And it'd take a twenty-mule team t' pull me offen it. Of a evenin', like this, the boss, he sits on the east porch, smokin'; the boys 're strung along the side of the bunk-house t' rest and ga.s.s and laugh; and, out yonder, is the cottonwoods, same as ever, and the ditch, and the mesquite, leveler'n a floor; and--up over it all--the moon, white and smilin'.

Then, outen the door nigh where the sun-flowers 're growin', mebbe she'll come--a slim, little figger in white. And, if it's plenty warm, and not too late, why, she'll be totin' the smartest, cutest----

Listen! y' hear that?

"Sweet is the vale where the Mohawk gently glides On its fair, windin' way to the sea----"

That's my little wife,--that's Macie, now--a-singin' to the kid!

THE END