ous!"
as her injustice struck him afresh, while the outraged McLean told his
tale.

"Trample is what she has done on me to-night, and without notice. We was
startin' to come here; Taylor and Mrs. were ahead in the buggy, and I
was holdin' her horse, and helpin' her up in the saddle, like I done for
days and days. Who was there to see us? And I figured she'd not mind,
and she calls me an exception! Yu'd ought to've just heard her about
Western men respectin' women. So that's the last word we've spoke.
We come twenty-five miles then, she scootin' in front, and her horse
kickin' the sand in my face. Mrs. Taylor, she guessed something was up,
but she didn't tell."

"Miss Wood did not tell?"

"Not she! She'll never open her head. She can take care of herself, you
bet!" The fiddles sounded hilariously in the house, and the feet also.
They had warmed up altogether, and their dancing figures crossed the
windows back and forth. The two cow-punchers drew near to a window and
looked in gloomily.

"There she goes," said Lin.

"With Uncle Hughey again," said the Virginian, sourly. "Yu' might
suppose he didn't have a wife and twins, to see the way he goes
gambollin' around."

"Westfall is takin' a turn with her now," said McLean.

"James!" exclaimed the Virginian. "He's another with a wife and fam'ly,
and he gets the dancin', too."

"There she goes with Taylor," said Lin, presently.

"Another married man!" the Southerner commented. They prowled round to
the store-room, and passed through the kitchen to where the dancers were
robustly tramping. Miss Wood was still the partner of Mr. Taylor. "Let's
have some whiskey," said the Virginian. They had it, and returned, and
the Virginian's disgust and sense of injury grew deeper. "Old Carmody
has got her now," he drawled. "He polkas like a landslide. She learns
his monkey-faced kid to spell dog and cow all the mawnin'. He'd ought to
be tucked up cosey in his bed right now, old Carmody ought."

They were standing in that place set apart for the sleeping children;
and just at this moment one of two babies that were stowed beneath
a chair uttered a drowsy note. A much louder cry, indeed a chorus of
lament, would have been needed to reach the ears of the parents in the
room beyond, such was the noisy volume of the dance. But in this quiet
place the light sound caught Mr. McLean's attention, and he turned to
see if anything were wrong. But both babies were sleeping peacefully.

"Th