ng, the schoolma'am was upon her feet and snuggled close in
Weary's eager arms. More, he had a hand under her chin, her face was
tilted back and he was smiling down into her wide, startled eyes.

"I didn't burn a streak a thousand miles long in the atmosphere, getting
back here, to be scared out now by a little woman like you," he remarked,
and tucked a stray, brown lock solicitously behind her ear. Then he bent
and kissed her deliberately upon the mouth.

"Now, say you're my little schoolma'am. Quick, before I do it again." He
threatened with his lips, and he looked as if he were quite anxious to
carry out his threat.

"I'm your--" the schoolma'am hid her face from him. "Oh, Will! Whatever
made you go off like that, and I--I nearly died wanting to see you--"

Weary laid his cheek very tenderly against hers, and held her close. No
words came to either, just then.

"What if I'd kept on being a fool--and hadn't come back at all, Girlie?"
he asked softly, after a while.

The schoolma'am shuddered eloquently in his arms.

"It was sure lonesome--it was _hell_ out there alone," he observed,
reminiscently.

"It was sure--h-hell back here alone, too," murmured a smothered voice
which did not sound much like the clear, self-assertive tones of Miss
Satterly.

"Well, it come near serving you right," Weary told her, relishfully
grinning over the word she used.

"What made yuh chase me off?"

"I--don't know; I--"

"I guess yuh don't, all right," agreed Weary, giving a little squeeze by
way of making quite sure he had her there. "Say, what was that yarn Myrt
Forsyth told yuh about me?"

"I--I don't know. She--she hinted a lot--"

"I expect she did--that's Myrt, every rattle uh the box," Weary cut in
dryly.

"And she--she said you had to leave home--in the night--"

"Oh, she did, eh? Well, Girlie, if the time-table hasn't changed, Miss
Myrt Forsyth sneaked off the same way. The train west leaves--or did
leave--Chadville along about midnight, so--Say, it feels good to be back,
little schoolma'am. You don't know how good--"

"I guess I do," cried the schoolma'am very emphatically. "I just guess I
know something about that, myself. Oh you dear, great, tall--"

Something happened just then to the schoolma'am's lips, so that she could
not finish the sentence.

FIRST AID TO CUPID

The floor manager had just called out that it was "ladies' choice," and
Happy Jack, his eyes glued in rapturous appre