't no more use'n yon
'tenderfoot.'" The speaker pointed scornfully at Tresler, and his
audience turned and looked. "Guess I've lost quarts o' blood, an' have
got a hole in my chest ye couldn't plug with a corn-sack. An' now,
jest when I'm gittin' to mend decent, he comes an' boosts me right out
to the bunkhouse 'cause he ketches me yarnin' wi' that bit of a gal o'
his. But, say, she just let out on him that neat as you fellers never
heerd. Yes, sir, guess her tongue's like velvet mostly, but when she
turned on that blind hulk of a father of hers--wal, ther', ef I was a
cat an' had nine lives to give fer her they jest wouldn't be enough by
a hund'ed."

"Say, Arizona," said one of the men quietly, "what was you yarnin'
'bout? Guess you allus was sweet on Miss Dianny."

Arizona turned on the speaker fiercely. "That'll do fer you, Raw;
mebbe you ain't got savee, an' don't know a leddy when you sees one.
I'm a cow-hand, an' good as any man around here, an' ef you've any
doubts about it, why----"

"Don't take no notice, Arizona," put in a lank youth quickly. He was a
tall, hungry-looking boy, in that condition of physical development
when nature seems in some doubt as to her original purpose. "'E's only
laffin' at you."

"Guess Mister Raw Harris ken quit right here then, Teddy. I ain't
takin' his slack noways."

"Git on with the yarn, Arizona," cried another. "Say, wot was you
sayin' to the gal?"

"Y' see, Jacob," the sick man went on, falling back into his drawling
manner, "it wus this ways. Miss Dianny, she likes a feller to git
yarnin', an', seein' as I've been punchin' most all through the
States, she kind o' notioned my yarns. Which I 'lows is reasonable.
She'd fixed my chest up, an' got me trussed neat an' all, an' set
right down aside me fer a gas. You know her ways, kind o' sad an'
saft. Wal, she up an' tells me how she'd like gittin' in to Whitewater
next winter, an' talked o' dances an' sech. Say, she wus jest
whoopin' wi' the pleasure o' the tho't of it. Guess likely she'd be
mighty pleased to git a-ways. Wal, I don't jest know how it come, but
I got yarnin' of a barbecue as was held down Arizona way. I was
tellin' as how I wus ther', an' got winged nasty. It wa'n't much. Y'
see I was tellin' her as I wus runnin' a bit of a hog ranch them
times, an', on o-casions, we used to give parties. The pertickler
party I wus referrin' to wus a pretty wholesome racket. The boys got
good an' drunk, an' they got slingi