and calling in the hand the old gent was a-holding--and said she must
be brave, like her dear Captain'd always been, so he'd see when he was
a-looking at her from heaven she was doing the square thing. And as to
having to wait around before she went East, she said, in one way it
didn't make any matter--seeing she'd be well cared for and comfortable
at Palomitas staying in the house of the Baptist minister, who'd
married her aunt.

Hill said when she went to talking about Baptist ministers and aunts
in Palomitas he shook so laughing inside he most fell off the box.
Except the Mexican padre who belonged there--the one I've spoke of
that made a record, and Bishop Lamy had to bounce--and sometimes the
French ones from San Juan and the Canada, who was straight as
strings, there wasn't a fire-escape ever showed himself in Palomitas;
and as to the ladies of the town--well, the ladies wasn't just what
you'd call the aunt kind. It's a cold fact that Palomitas, that year
when the end of the track stuck there, was the cussedest town, same as
I've said it was, in the whole Territory--and so it was no more'n
natural Hill should pretty near bust himself trying to hold in his
laughing when the Hen took to talking so off-hand about Palomitas and
Baptist ministers and aunts. She felt how he was shaking, and jammed
him hard with her elbow to keep him from letting his laugh out and
giving her away.

* * * * *

Hill said they'd got along to Pojuaque by the time the Hen had
finished telling about herself, and the fix she was in because she had
to wait along with her aunt in Palomitas till her transportation come
from Washington--and she just sick to get East and grab her little
Willy in her arms. And the old gent was that interested in it all,
Hill said, it was a sight to see how he went on.

At Pojuaque the coach always made a noon stop, and the team was
changed and the passengers got dinner at old man Bouquet's. He was a
Frenchman, old man Bouquet was; but he'd been in the Territory from
'way back, and he'd got a nice garden behind his house and things
fixed up French style. His strongest hold was his wine-making. He made
a first-class drink, as drinks of that sort go; and, for its kind, it
was pretty strong. As his cooking was first-class too, Hill's
passengers--and the other folks that stopped for grub there--always
wanted to make a good long halt.

Hill said it turned out the old gent k