Plain Mary Smith

t putting off to us, and a curly yellow head suddenly popping up over the rail, f

He was a cuss, that Jimmy. When he looked at you with the twinkle in them blue eyes of his, you couldn't help but laugh. And if there wasn't a twinkle in those eyes, and you laughed, you made a mistake. Thunder! but he was a sight to ta

ou look as hearty as usual, and still wearing your legs cut sho

g your legs cu

told him abo

the whole place in, altho

gs you aboard, J

rly sort of white man that'll do what he's told without a word, and'll bust

kind of underneath-the-table g

ex-college professor I hired did me to the tune of fifteen hundred cold yellow disks and skipped. You see, I want somebody to tell, 'Here, you look a

g a thumb toward me. "There's a

hat blue eye of his was like looking into a mirror-you guessed all there

with his hand out. "My name's Jim Holton

n't seem to be able to think," says I. "Lay it o

your name?" He showed he liked me-he wasn't afr

ys I-"Bill

the little bird flew up to him with the tree in his teeth? Well, he'll seem sad alongside of me when I catch sight of that sunrise head of yours above my gang of mud-colored greasers and Chinamen. You owe it t

on't know," says I. "I ne

contented with you. I thought at first you m

extent-not unless I get mad, or the other fel

u, on the square, I'll use you right as long as you seem to appreciate it. That's my line of action, and I can prove it by Jesse-I can prove anything by Jesse. No; but, honest, boy, if you come with me, there's little c

boy's just away from his ma-he do

e Sax-joke as long as it was joking-time, then

d off the first beggar you see abusing a horse; and do what I tell you, generally. For that, I'll put one hundred United States dollars in your jeans each and every mon

month! It hit me so

ou ain't going to find the worth of it in my hide-I don't know ab

. He was as nice as a woman, on his good side-and you'd better keep that side toward

don't care any more about me than I do about them-that ain't living. You can clear your mind. I like your looks. If I've made a mistake, why, it's a mistake, and we'll part s

"I begin to hope you and me will never come to w

ubbed my hair around. "There was heart in that

his breath. "That the kind of cargo you carry now, Jess?" he a

ng to teach in one of them mission schools

sulted," says Jim; "but I'll w

her face. She'd been about to join Sax, but seeing the two come, di

ide, three foot and a half to the pace. Jesse always looked kind of tied together loose. Jim was trim as a race-hors

sse, with a bob, "thi

his life," says Jim, sweeping the dec

unt. They were best of the dimple family-not f

a stranger; but, somehow, Jim showed for

im as deep a bow, gave him a look, and in a moc

myself the caus

uppose-you're to

ssible; but the evidence of such very truthful and very blue, blue eyes

im. Mary'd got the war on his territory in two seconds. He looked at her, dumb; until, seeing her holding back her laughter by

, not wanting to quit whipped, "that you are

e a bad disposition not to be contented with that-a

shook hands without smiles. It was more like the hand-shake before "time" is called. But they looked

; the other fair and romantic-looking. You pays your money and you takes your choice. Sax knew more of books; Jim knew more of men. Sax knew the wild lands of music and such; Jim

in one stroke-he was a sudden sort of jigger. Well, there she stood; and if there's anything i

arouse any deep feeling of anger between two men-why, I honestly believe she'd rather they'd strike her than each other. Oh, no! She stood for nothing of that kind. She stood heart and soul for light and fun and kindness. If she made mistakes, it was from a natural underratin

ed for an invitation to call on Mary in Panama, and got what you might call a limited order-"I shall

and come with me

now?"

want me to," he says. "

known folks to live in places and keep at jobs, hating both, could quit easily, yet staying on and on, simply because they were there yesterday. I've got so that if people start talking over an act, I feel like saying, "For Heaven's sake! Let's try it and then we'll know

e chief difference between the Western man's way and the Eastern man's way is that the Westerner says it's fun and believes it, whilst the Easterner says it's a gr

around, and find out where Sax and Mary were g

a horse?" Jim asks m

r," s

s hadn't been all hired out or bought this last rush. As it is, you stand to get on to something that don't want you. My Pedro'd eat you alive if yo

aid of. I didn't like the thought of playing puss-in-the-corner with a horse I'

"I guess, if I get a hold on him

ed his h

art," he says. "These mustangs are the mo

" he says. He spoke to a native in Spanish. The feller looked at me and spread both hands. I scarcely knew there was such

but one brute, and he can't imagine you a

and run out, you'll make it, all right

t me again, shaking his head sorrowful. At last

p that hung down three inches, and the eye of a dying codfish. I lost all fear of him at once. Ignorance is the papa of courage. According to instructions, I put my left foot in the stirrup and made ready to board. At that instant my trusty

ch means the town was there,-I grabbed that cussed brute by the wi

!" I hollered. "T

I pinched his throat. He kicked me, and I kicked him. We wrastled all over the place, playing plain stick-to-him-Pete. The worst of having a hand-to-hand with an an

rt. Pretty soon he got frantic, and the way he tore and r'ared around there was a treat. It didn't occur to either one of us to le

swore at himself ferocious, and by all that was gr

't going to kill my horse; that I intended to ride that same mustang o

g a fool?" says he. "Now

the horse

ll," says he. "I honest think h

hould have known better than to tackle anything that resembled Archie, but I didn't. Instead, I walked up, club in hand, waiting for the mustang to make a crooked move. He paid no attention, let me put my foot in the stirrup, swing aboard and settle down. Not till then did he toss his head gaily in the air and holler for joy. You see, he'd made out that we were likel

ieces, till, all of a sudden, Archie give a jump that landed me on his rump and pulled out for more room. And didn't he go! It was scandalous, the way he flapped them bony legs of his

rong hands on

g. I hollered to him to get out of the way, but the sight of me and Archie streaming in the breeze surprised him so he stood paralyzed. He made a fat man's hop fo

a wipe with the green umbrella before

uicker. This world was all a dizzy show, till the crowd came up, Jim, on his Pedro, leading. They were all there: all the revolutionists, a

a. Some of 'em stood and admired Archie, who was smacking his lips over some grass that grew on the side,

killed! Hadn't been for Se?or Martinez there, you would '

n this world, when a man's made a fool of himself, is to have somebody come up and tell him he prophesi

all that," says I, "but what's the matt

. Then he introduced me to Mr. Martinez as the grateful

and extended the hand of friendship

" He waved his hand so the diamonds glittered like a shower. "A treefle-a leetle, leetle treeful," by wh

o Christobal Colon O'Sullivan gave you things that lightened

of the saloon, making it clear to us how Archie acted. And when he was me, darned if he didn't manage to look like me, and when he was Archie he seemed to thin out and grow bony hip-joints immediately; Archie'd nickered at

they could have their hands free to talk. I think even the dogs took a shy at the st

s because of the scarcity of theaters. If there was a theater for every ten inhabitants, and plays writ

m, and, as far as that goes, we have little fool ways of our own th

tel, slept strictly on one side, and scrapped it out

as if I'd lost the use of my legs. Water is all right. I like boats-I like about everything-but still, I think the Almighty never did better by man