e."

"Poor boy! There seems to be no escape for you!" Bim exclaimed with a
sigh. "Do you really and honestly want to marry me? If there's any doubt
about it I'll leave the horses with you and swim the creek. You could put
them in the barn and swim with me or spend the night in the cabin."

He embraced and kissed her in a way that left no doubt of his wishes.

"It's a cool evening and the creek is very wet," he answered. "I'm going
to take this matter in my own hands."

He called to the minister: "Steve, this is the luckiest moment of my life
and you are just the man of all others I would have chosen for its most
important job. Can you stand right where you are and marry us?"

"You bet I kin, suh," the minister answered. "I've often said I could
marry any one half a mile erway if they would only talk as loud as I kin.
I've got the good book right hyah in my pocket, suh. My ol' woman is
comin'. She'll be hyah in a minute fer to witness the perceedin's."

Mrs. Nuckles made her appearance on the river bank in a short time.

Then the minister shouted: "We'll begin by readin' the nineteenth chapter
of Matthew."

He shouted the chapter and the usual queries, knelt and prayed and
pronounced them man and wife.

The young man and woman walked to the cabin and put their horses in its
barn, where they found an abundance of hay and oats. They rapped at the
cabin door but got no response. They lifted its latch and entered.

A table stood in the middle of the room set for two. On its cover of
spotless white linen were plates and cups and saucers and a big platter
of roasted prairie chickens and a great frosted cake and preserves and
jellies and potato salad and a pie and a bottle of currant wine. A clock
was ticking on the shelf. There were live embers in the fireplace and
wood in the box, and venison hanging in the chimney.

The young soldier looked about him and smiled.

"This is wonderful!" he exclaimed. "To whom are we indebted?"

"You don't think I'd bring you out here on the plains and marry you and
not treat you well," Bim laughed. "I warned you that you'd have to take
what came and that the hospitality would be simple."

"It's a noble and benevolent conspiracy that has turned this cabin into
a Paradise and brought all this happiness upon me," he said as he kissed
her. "I thought it strange that Mr. Nuckles should be on hand at the
right moment."

"The creek was a harder thing to manage," she answered with a smi