A SCURRY COUNTY WOOING
set out the sitaation clear. So in I went, and I s'plained to him that we 'uns didn't want him near, and not in the county. I further said we was clearly of opinion we could even do without him in Texas, and I said the East-bound express was hankerin' to haul him back East. And he was cool as a January mornin'. So I played the rest of my hand, and I said you was yellin' for his blood and would shoot him up on sight. And I allowed all the boys in Scurry County was ekal set on his immediate decease."
"And did he crawl down?" asked Jerome.
"Not a solitary crawl," groaned Jack. "On the contrary, he bucked up s'if he'd took a cocktail, and he intimated that I could acquaint you with the interestin' fact that he would be in the rowmantic neighbourhood of Ennis Crick the day arter ter-morrer. And it shore seemed to me that you'd hev to shoot him, in spite of your Dad."
"It looks like it," said Jerome, "but I don't much want to."
Jack shook his head again.
"That ain't all. I went on to see Mary,
165
