Happy Hawkins

SSION

the bloomin' blue blasted blazes is the matter?" sez Spi

light an' see!" I ye

e whole bunch, an' the tone th

Barbie, an' then I motioned for 'em to drag the bodies out. Monody was alive an' he had a satisfied grin on his face when I helped to carry him out in the air. Jabez never moved, an' the boys lifted him mighty tender-he'd been a good man to work for, spite of his queer ways. The

I took the shack door down, but Barbie wasn't there

ow?" I opened the door to the big oven an' there she was, wrapped in a coat an'

t o' the time. When you'd all shoot together it would wake me up; but then after a minute I'd doze off again, an' now it's gettin

man!"

ere now? I want to talk to her. I've missed ol' Melisse someth

goin' to carry you in an' put you to bed, an' you can go on dreamin' about your

gain to put a dream into her lonely little heart like she'd already done that night; but I carried her into her little white bedroom hummin' a dance-tune, took off her shoes an' stockin's, covered her up warm, an' told her she could sleep late, as we wasn't goin' to have an early breakfast. The big lids closed down over h

had an achin' in the back of his neck. I stopped in my tracks gappin' at him, an' purty soon he noticed me an' sez, "Well, what are YOU

ure you 're alive you've lifted a ton off

they won't let me get up. I got to see her, Happy, I got t

you hit, Ja

the neck an' it paralyzed me. These blame pin-heads are crazy to strip me an' see if I ain't shot all to

it, Jabez," I sez. "I want

omfortable, 'cause he was the most bloodthirsty lookin' of the whole bunch. "Are you hurt bad, Monody" I said. His face li

wasn't no reason for him to die, so I begun to kid him about it. He grinned an' said he didn't intend to die on purpose, but he reckoned it was his turn, an' he didn't intend to side step. He was most unreasonable an' wouldn't let us bandage him nor nothin', said he had a salve 'at beat anything a doctor

g alive when I got back to the side porch, an' he was sinkin' fast. He had told Jabez 'at then intended to clean him out completely, an' that Jim, the sub-cook, was one o' the gang an' had let the ridin' ponies loose so 'at the' was no choi

ar with the gang, an' when it was possible Brophy tried to get boys to fill up the vacancies,-boys likin' the game an' not carin' much for the consequences

iamond Dot, we havin' one o' the biggest outfits in the territory, an' all patriotic toward the old man. Jabez give me more credit'n was due me, but he sure tried to do the fair thing by of Monody too. Monody had saved us all, an' that was the simple tr

se it before they got his clothes off. "I want to be buried in 'em, Happy," he said to me, most earnest. "If I die with 'em on you won't let 'em take 'em off, will ya?" He had a lot o' fever, so I humored him; but I wished, myself, he wasn't so set in his ways. His salve was the bulliest stuff I ever used on a bullet hole, an' my arm begun to me

im, an' she would smooth back his black, coarse hair; but she

when Monody was dozin', "she'd cook somethin'

onody comein' to

she wouldn't whip me for it, so Daddy told her to clear out until she was wi

"Well, after all, it might be. The'

so I didn't question him none. "Where

ere hereabouts, 'cause the day before my birthday-why, it was only day before yesterday, wasn't it? It seems years

e. He lay there a long time without speakin', an' then he sez: "O' course the' may not be anything in it, but if ever you an' this Jabez lock hor

Monody was in a ragin' fever an' some out of his head, but he kept h

that's bad enough, goodness knows. He's hurt somewhere in the spin

d of his right arm while the doctor started to unbutton his shirt. Ol' Monody's eyes opened with a jerk, an' the fever had left 'em. "Happy, Happy!" he pleaded. "You know 'at I'd

self; he give me the best salve ever I see for my own shoulder, an' when he sez it's all up with him, he ain't bluffin'. I reckon you'd better just let him alone." I hadn't never seen this doctor before; he wa

is clothes on he's sure goin' to do it or else the' 's goin' to be consi

st to go, an' then the r

n' I knew it the first time I looked into your eyes. If I'd fell in with

'd got up an' around again, but right after the Dock had left

ow, Jabez,"

re out o' the room with a gun an'

ved your life an' your outfit an' your daughter, an' I don't reckon you're goin' to t

er!" shouts Jabez. "He 's

Monody, in a low, soft voice, but wi

ot nothin' he ever knew, an' it'll be bette

k into Jabez' eyes for a moment, an' then he muttered, "Well, this is a free country an' I reckon lie has the right to decide. He has sure

o have a woman around her though. You get old Melisse back, Happy, an' remember-if it ever comes to a question of you or him-just call him George Jordan an' say 'at Jack Whitman wasn't killed "-Monody chuckled again, an' then sobered-"but don't spring it except as a last resort, 'cause

act o' kindness. Just at midnight he took my hand, an' the' came a look into his eyes like as if he was about overcome by some beautiful vision; but in a moment he c

I went out into the night to have a look at the stars. Whenever somethin' has happened in my little wobbly life down here I like to get out an' see the same ol

ong ago, but the hooked-nosed buzzard couldn't leave without satisfyin' his curiosity. "What d

ness," sez I, "so I didn'

e he wasn't a man at

en I thought of what a girl is, an' what it must have took to make one want to really be a man, I felt plumb ashamed o' my

now?" I sez s

in the abdomen and the bullet had lodged in the spine. She had stuffe

ith you?"

th pride; "I went in

ake an examination. I only got one arm, so it's perfectly fair. It seems to be the fashion now days to examine human bei

rabbed him by the collar an' put my knee in his stomach as a brace; he struck me in the face an' in my wounded shoulder, but in about one minute I had his clothes off him, an' there he stood the shamedest thing

my clothes

ut I hope in my heart the sun peels your back before you arrive, an' I hope when you do a

ide, got his pony, an' rode away. He rode clear out o' the West I reckon, 'cause while I heard of the story pu

th his white skin shinin' on his hunched up form,