hat's the way I feels. It's a fact; I remembers a time when my
mother, gettin' plumb desp'rate over my hoomility, offers me a runnin'
hoss if I'd go co't a girl; on which o'casion I feebly urges that I'd
rather walk.

"'On the evenin' of this yer dance an' Gander-Pullin' I'm pirootin'
about the Center when I meets up with Jule James;--Jule bein' the
village belle. "Goin' to the dance?" says Jule. "No," says I. "Why
ever don't you go?" asks Jule. "Thar ain't no girl weak-minded enough
to go with me," I replies; "I makes a bid for two or three but gets the
mitten." This yere last is a bluff. "Which I reckons now," says Jule,
givin' me a look, "if you'd asked me, I'd been fool enough to go." Of
course, with that I'm treed; I couldn't flicker, so I allows that if
Jule'll caper back to the house with me I'll take her yet.

"'We-all gets back to my old gent's an' I proceeds to hitch up a Dobbin
hoss we has to a side-bar buggy. It's dark by now, an' we don't go to
the house nor indulge in any ranikaboo uproar about it, as I figgers
it's better not to notify the folks. Not that they'd be out to put the
kybosh on this enterprize; but they're powerful fond of talk my folks
is, an' their long suit is never wantin' you to do whatever you're out
to execoote. Wherefore, as I ain't got no time for a j'int debate with
my fam'ly over technicalities I puts Jule into the side-bar where it's
standin' in the dark onder a shed; an' then, hookin' up old Dobbin a
heap surreptitious, I gathers the reins an' we goes softly p'intin'
forth for Hickman's.

"'As we-all is sailin' thoughtlessly along the trail, Dobbin ups an'
bolts. Sech flights is onpreeceedented in the case of Dobbin--who's
that sedate he's jest alive--an' I'm shore amazed; but I yanks him up
an' starts anew. It's twenty rods when Dobbin bolts ag'in. This time
I hears a flutter, an' reaches 'round Jule some to see if her
petticoats is whippin' the wheel. They ain't; but Jule--who esteems
said gesture in the nacher of a caress--seemin' to favour the idee, I
lets my arm stay 'round. A moment later an' this yere villain Dobbin
bolts the third time, an' as I've sort o' got my one arm tangled up
with Jule, he lams into a oak tree.

"'It's then, when we're plumb to a halt, I does hear a flutter. At
that I gets down to investigate. Gents, you-all may onderstand my
horror when I finds 'leven of my shawl-neck game chickens roostin' on
that side-bar's reach! They're th