ardin'
myse'f as a sharp on tears, but thar's folks who sort o' makes sadness
a speshulty, women folks lots of 'em, who allows that what I'm about to
recount possesses pecooliar elements of sorrow.

"'Thar's a young captain--he ain't more'n a boy--who's brought a troop
of lancers along with us. This boy Captain hails from some'ers up
'round Waco, an' thar ain't a handsomer or braver in all Pres'dent
Davis's army. This Captain--whose name is Edson,--an' me, bein' we-all
is both young, works ourse'fs into a clost friendship for each other; I
feels about him like he's my brother. Nacherally, over a camp fire an'
mebby a stray bottle an' a piece of roast antelope, him an' me confides
about ourse'fs. This Captain Edson back in Waco has got a old widow
mother who's some rich for Texas, an' also thar's a sweetheart he aims
to marry when the war's over an' done. I reckons him an' me talks of
that mother an' sweetheart of his a hundred times.

"'It falls out that where we fords the Pecos we runs up on a Mexican
Plaza--the "Plaza Chico" they-all calls it--an' we camps thar by the
river a week, givin' our cattle a chance to roll an' recooperate up on
the grass an' water.

"'Then we goes p'intin' out for the settin' sun ag'in, allowin' to
strike the Rio Grande some'ers below Albuquerque. Captain Edson, while
we're pesterin' 'round at the Plaza Chico, attaches to his retinoo a
Mexican boy; an' as our boogles begins to sing an' we lines out for
that west'ard push, this yere boy rides along with Edson an' the
lancers.

"'Our old war chief who has charge of our wanderin's is strictly stern
an' hard. An' I reckons now he's the last gent to go makin' soft
allowances for any warmth of yooth, or puttin' up with any primrose
paths of gentle dalliance, of any an' all who ever buckles on a set of
side arms. It thus befalls that when he discovers on the mornin' of
the second day that this Mexican boy is a Mexican girl, he goes ragin'
into the ambient air like a eagle.

"'The Old Man claps Edson onder arrest an' commands the girl to saddle
up an' go streakin' for the Plaza Chico. As it's only a slow day's
march an' as these Mexicans knows the country like a coyote, it's a
cinch the girl meets no harm an' runs no resks. But it serves to plant
the thorns of wrath in the heart of Captain Edson.

"'The Old Man makes him loose an' gives him back his lancers before
ever we rides half a day, but it don't work no mollifications with th