aced this portion of
the wedding entertainment, realizing that, at best, pouring from a
bottle and drinking from a glass is a slow and tedious process, to
facilitate matters had provided two large, bright, new dish-pans which
he filled with wine, also a plentiful supply of bright, new, tin
dippers.

They drank Symes's health in long, deep draughts and it was with some
forebodings that Symes noted the frequency with which the same guests
appeared in line. Symes had no great desire that his wedding should go
down in the annals of Crowheart as the most complete drunk in its
history nor was his bank account inexhaustible. Also he observed with,
annoyance that his newly-created brother-in-law, Adolph Kunkel, had
retired to a quiet corner where he might drink from the bottle
unmolested. Adolph Kunkel, sober, was bad enough, but Adolph Kunkel,
drunk, was worse.

That his fears were not unfounded was shortly made evident by the
appearance of Sylvanus Starr with a bland, bucolic smile upon his
wafer-like countenance and his scant foretop tied in a baby-blue ribbon
which had embellished the dainty ham sandwiches provided by Mrs.
Terriberry. By the time the dance was well under way eyes had brightened
perceptibly and sunburned faces had taken on a deeper hue while Snake
River Jim sat with a pickle behind his ear and his eyes rolled to the
ceiling as though entranced by his own heavenly strains.

As the room grew warmer, the conversation waxed louder, the dance faster
and the whoops of exuberance more frequent, until Bedlam reigned. Percy
Parrot chancing to observe "Tinhorn Frank" sliding toward the door with
two unopened bottles of champagne protruding from his coat pockets made
a low tackle and clasped him about the ankles. As "Tinhorn" lay prone he
was shamed in vivid English by the graceful barber while the new
plasterer excused himself from his partner long enough to kick the
prostrate ingrate in the ribs. Mrs. "Hank" Terriberry, whose hair looked
like a pair of angora "chaps" in a high wind, returning from her third
trip to the dish-pan, burst into tears at the man's depravity and
inadvertently wiped her streaming eyes on the end of her long lace jabot
instead of her handkerchief.

Sylvanus Starr, declaring that his chivalrous nature was unable to
endure the sight of a woman's tears, sought to divert her by slipping
his arm about her waist and whirling her dizzily the length of the room
and back again where they were met