Alec Lloyd, Cowpuncher

I hit the ranch on a Friday, about six in the evenin', it was, I reckon,--in time fer supper, anyhow. The punchers et in a room acrosst the kitchen from where the fambly et. And...

WAL, pore ole Sewell! _I_ wasn't feelin' dandy them days, you'd better believe. But, Sewell, he took Macie's goin' _turrible_ bad. Whenever he come in town, he was allus just as...

I'M just square enough to own _up_ it was one on me. But far's that par_tic_ular mix-up goes, I can _afford_ to be honest, and let anybody snicker that wants to--seein' the way...

"Now, look a-here, Alec Lloyd," broke in Hairoil Johnson, throwin' up one hand like as if to defend hisself, and givin' me a kinda scairt look, "you shut you' bazoo right this m...

The boys was a-settin' 'long the edge of the freight platform, Bergin at the one end of the line, Hairoil at the other, and all of 'em either a-chawin' 'r a-smokin'. I was down...

"WAL, Hairoil," I says, "I shore am a' unlucky geezer! Why, d' you know, I don't hardly dast go from one room to another these days fer fear I'll git my lip pinched in the door."

UP to the day of the sheriff's weddin', I reckon I was about the happiest feller that's ever been in these parts. Gee! but I was in high spirits! It'd be Macie's and my turn nex...

SAY! wouldn't you 'a' figgered, after I'd brung Mace back t' the ole Bar Y, and made her paw so happy that the hull ranch couldn't hole him, and he had t' go streak up t' town a...

AIN'T it funny what little bits of things can sorta change a feller's life all 'round ev'ry which _di_rection--shuffle it up, you might say, and throw him out a brand new deal?...

I GOT back all right. It takes two dollars and six-bits to git from Goldstone to Briggs City on the Local. But if you happen to have a little flat bottle in you' back pocket, yo...

THE street Mace lived on was turrible narra. Why, if a long-horn had 'a' been druv through it, he could 'a' just give a wiggle of his haid and busted all the windas in the block...

It was Macie Sewell singin'. Ole Number 201 'd just pulled outen Briggs City, haided southwest with her freight of tenderfeet, and with Ingineer Dave Reynolds stickin' in his sp...