o glasses of whiskey to start his blood
moving again, and then sat down and played poker disasterously until
daylight made the lamps grow a sickly yellow and the air of the room
seem suddenly stale and dead. But Happy never thought of blaming the
schoolma'am for the eighteen dollars he lost.

Neither did he blame her for the nightmares which tormented his sleep
during the week that followed or the vague uneasiness that filled his
waking hour, even when he was not thinking directly of the ghost that
dogged him. For wherever he went, or whatever he did, Happy Jack was
conscious of the fact that his name was down on the schoolma'am's list
and he was definitely committed to do anything she asked him to do,
even to "speaking a piece"--which was in his eyes the acme of mental
torture.

When Cal Emmett, probably thinking of Miss Satterly's little book,
pensively warbled in his ear:

Is your name written there,
On the page white and fair?

Happy Jack made no reply, though he suddenly felt chilly along the
spinal column. It was.

"Schoolma'am wants us all to go over to the schoolhouse
tonight--seven-thirty, sharp--to help make medicine over this Santa
Claus round-up. Slim, she says you've got to be Santy and come down
the stovepipe and give the kids fits and popcorn strung on a string.
She says you've got the figure." Weary splashed into the wash basin
like a startled muskrat.

The Happy Family looked at one another distressfully.

"By golly," Slim gulped, "you can just tell the schoolma'am to go
plumb--" (Weary faced him suddenly, his brown hair running rivulets)
"and ask the Old Man," finished Slim hurriedly. "He's fifteen pounds
fatter'n I be."

"Go tell her yourself," said Weary, appeased. "I promised her you'd
all be there on time, if I had to hog-tie the whole bunch and haul yuh
over in the hayrack." He dried his face and hands leisurely and
regarded the solemn group. "Oh, mamma! you're sure a nervy-looking
bunch uh dogies. Yuh look like--"

"Maybe you'll hog-tie the whole bunch," Jack Bates observed irritably,
"but if yuh do, you'll sure be late to meeting, sonny!"

The Happy Family laughed feeble acquiescence.

"I won't need to," Weary told them blandly. "You all gave the
schoolma'am leave to put down your names, and its up to you to make
good. If yuh haven't got nerve enough to stay in the game till the
deck's shuffled yuh hadn't any right to buy a stack uh chips."

"Yeah--that's right,"