THE RISE OF GINGER GILLETT
but deeply natural as aforesaid. And Green said openly that when he quit this mortal sphere and the Panhandle of Texas, Ginger was the man to be City Marshal. Now the truth is, and I would have stated it to Green himself, that he was not the highest and most shining sort of Marshal himself. He was too easy with everybody, and he loved sleep a whole lot. A City Marshal in Texas should be awake eighteen hours out of twenty-four, and off en twenty-four, takin' what rest he can when peace blooms rarely. But Green liked the blankets, and it took a powerful deputation to get him out of 'em. I went around to his shack one night no later than one o'clock, and interviewed him through the window with regard to two toughs that had come into the town from El Paso, on an occasion when all our best men was away at Sweetwater for a trial that was on there. And Green let on that he reckoned it would do the town good to be shook out of its calm a bit, and that he would attend to the matter in the morning. And next morning he triumphed over my mournful prognostications because
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