g to betray the fact.

Weary sighed and tried again. "And that ain't the worst of it,
either. Mame Beckman has got an attack; she told Schoolma'am she
could die for Pink and never bat an eye. She said she never knowed
what true love was till she seen him. She says he looks just like
the cherubs--all but the wings--that she's been working in red thread
on some pillow shams. She was making 'em for her sister a present,
but she can't give 'em up, now; she calls all the cherubs 'Pink,' and
kisses 'em night and morning, regular." He paused and watched
anxiously Pink's untroubled face. "I tell yuh, boys, it's awful to
have the fatal gift uh beauty, like Cadwolloper's got. He means all
right, but he sure trifles a lot with girls' affections--which ain't
right. Mamma! don't he look sweet, laying there so innocent? I'm
sure sorry for Mame, though." He eyed him sidelong. But Pink slept
peacefully on, except that, after a half minute, he stirred slightly
and muttered something about "drive that darned cow back." Then
Weary gave up in despair and went to sleep. When the tent became
silent, save for the heavy breathing of tired men. Pink's long
lashes lifted a bit, and he grinned maliciously up at the cloth roof.

For obvious reasons he was the only one of the lot who heard with no
misgivings the vicious swoop of the storm; so long as the tent-pegs
held he didn't care how hard it rained. But the others who woke to
the roar of wind and the crash of thunder and to the swish and beat
of much falling water, turned uneasily in their beds and hoped that
it would not last long. To be late in starting for that particular
scene of merry-making which had held their desires for so long would
be a calamity they could not reflect upon calmly.

At three o'clock Pink, from long habit, opened his eyes to the dull
gray of early morning. The air in the tent was clammy and chill and
filled with the audible breathing of a dozen sleeping men; overhead
the canvas was dull yellow and sodden with the steady drip, drip,
drop of rain. There would be no starting out at sunrise--and perhaps
there would be no starting at all, he thought with lazy
disappointment, and turned on his side for another nap. His glance
fell upon Weary's up-turned, slumber-blank face, and his memory
reverted revengefully to the baiting of the night before. He would
fix Weary for that, he told himself spitefully; mentally measured a
perpendicular line from Weary'