g round that
schoolmarm! Yet he joined Ben Swinton in a seemingly Christian spirit.
He took some whiskey and praised the size of the barrel, speaking with
his host like this: "There cert'nly ain' goin' to be trouble about a
second helpin'."

"Hope not. We'd ought to have more trimmings, though. We're shy on
ducks."

"Yu' have the barrel. Has Lin McLean seen that?"

"No. We tried for ducks away down as far as the Laparel outfit. A real
barbecue--"

"There's large thirsts on Bear Creek. Lin McLean will pass on ducks."

"Lin's not thirsty this month."

"Signed for one month, has he?"

"Signed! He's spooning our schoolmarm!"

"They claim she's a right sweet-faced girl."

"Yes; yes; awful agreeable. And next thing you're fooled clean through."

"Yu' don't say!"

"She keeps a-teaching the darned kids, and it seems like a good
growed-up man can't interest her."

"YU' DON'T SAY!"

"There used to be all the ducks you wanted at the Laparel, but their
fool cook's dead stuck on raising turkeys this year."

"That must have been mighty close to a drowndin' the schoolmarm got at
South Fork."

"Why, I guess not. When? She's never spoken of any such thing--that I've
heard."

"Mos' likely the stage-driver got it wrong, then."

"Yes. Must have drownded somebody else. Here they come! That's her
ridin' the horse. There's the Westfalls. Where are you running to?"

"To fix up. Got any soap around hyeh?"

"Yes," shouted Swinton, for the Virginian was now some distance away;
"towels and everything in the dugout." And he went to welcome his first
formal guests.

The Virginian reached his saddle under a shed. "So she's never mentioned
it," said he, untying his slicker for the trousers and scarf. "I
didn't notice Lin anywheres around her." He was over in the dugout now,
whipping off his overalls; and soon he was excellently clean and ready,
except for the tie in his scarf and the part in his hair. "I'd have
knowed her in Greenland," he remarked. He held the candle up and down at
the looking-glass, and the looking-glass up and down at his head. "It's
mighty strange why she ain't mentioned that." He worried the scarf a
fold or two further, and at length, a trifle more than satisfied with
his appearance, he proceeded most serenely toward the sound of the
tuning fiddles. He passed through the store-room behind the kitchen,
stepping lightly lest he should rouse the ten or twelve babies that lay
on the table or beneath it. On