The Press., 1893-01-26
MATS HUSBAND.

soner.
 Sam Toms was what is called ''wuth- less" by his Texan neighbors. Old Rll
 Bum, his father-in-law, himself not a very energetic or useful citizen, used to sit on the steps at the crossroads store and publicly bewail his sad lot in having Sam for a member of his family. Bill had dramatic style of delivery that was very fetching, and invariably i'm pressed strangers as being very much i'll earnest.
 He would sit on the steps, silently chewing an enormous mouthful of to-
 bacco and apparently listening to the | conversation of his coloafers. If Sam's
 name was mentioned he would give vent
 to four or five little falsetto squeaks,
 which found egress through his nose:
 then he would draw in long breath, puff out his fat cheeks, purse his mouth,
 and give heavy, whistling sigh; this
 would be followed by large quantity
 of tobacco juice, carefully aimed at
 some object in the vicinity. These pre-
 liminaries accomplished, Bill would rise
 to his feet, thrust one fat, dirty hand into his shirt front, wave the other in
 sweeping gesture as he lowered his eyes
 and rolled his head sadly from side to ! side, and deliver himself profoundly aft
 CT the following fashion:
 'sAh-hum! That Sam Toms is tn laziest, mos shifless, o'nery, trif1in cuss ever seed-an yere I've done got i'm fir son-'n-lawr. Hm-hm-hm!" Another
 whistling sigh would close this perora-
 tion, and old Bill would resume his seat, still shaking his head sorrowfully. And Bill was more than half right. Nominally Sam was a cowboy, but
 most of the time he would tell you he
 was ''jes' layin off spell, t rest up like. !" He had always been just so-distin- guished for lazjness in an easy goirg
 community-a nobody expected him
 ever to be otherwise, and it puzzled peo-
 pie immensely when energetic, capable Matte Bum accepted him for ''reg lar
 comp'ny," to say nothing of the sensa- tion created by their wedding.
 Mat, as has been suggested, probably had some reason for marrying Sam, but it is quite certain that she never told
 any one what that reason was. Sam
 was tall and big, and handsome in his 1 careless, slouchy way; he had always
 managed, no one knew how, to wear good clothes too. These facts and his perennial good nature and friendly
 ways were the only points in his favor. Against him were the points so forcibly
 taken by his father-in-law, and also that
 he got drunk whenever he could possi- l bly, do so, aud was morally so weak that any one could easily lead him astray. How Mat and Sam got along no one
 but Mat knew. Once in a great while Sam would do some work and earn a few dollars. If he got home with it I without stopping at the saloon, we'll and good. But oftener than not he would ssdrap in jes' t take 8 nip T two," and that would settle it, At such times he ! would stay and buy drinks for every body present while his money lasted.
 Then he would come home in n r1atdlin, fearful state of intoxication, and invent some tale to account for his condition and the disappearance of his money, winding up with the promise never to let it happen again.
 And Mat would pretend that she be- lieved him, and would stroke his curly head until he fell asleep. Then she
 would look at the handsome scamp for few minutes with love unutterab1e in her eyes-the tired eyes back of which were world of unshed tears. But she never complained-not the first word: the firm set mouth and weary look might indicate ever so much, but her lips never expressed it. And Sam grad ually grew more and more useless and shiftless, trusting to his wife's ready wit and fertility of resource to carry them both oyer the bad places.
 There were lots of bad places too. Twice Sam ran into debt several dollars at the saloon and Mat found some means to pay the debts-only herself knew how. But the second time she informed the saloon man that he must trust Sam no more And, besides these things, to live-how did they do it? Nobody could guess. Perhaps even Mat herself could not have told, yet live they did-or rather existed-and for the most part kept out of debt.
 Sam sometimes worked, but never for very long. He always found some ex- cuse for leaving place within 8 few days. He could almost always find an- other job easily enough, for he was an excellent ''hand" when he chose to be, but he did not hasten about finding new job when he had given one up: not until they were reduced to the very last straits could Mat get him to hunting work again.
 One day Sam left home for ranch about thirty five miles distant, where he had heard they wanted help. Two days passed ee-four-fve-and no word came from him. Mat was not little worried, although Sam had often been away for two weeks at g time without sending word to her. But this time it was different; there was no excuse for his not sending a message, as the stage came by the ranch he had gone to three times week. If he had found work there, as he expected. he could easily have notified her. So, late in the after noon of the fifth day, she threw her shawl over her head and went down tc her fathers to find if they had heard anything of Sam.
 The old fellow was standing in the doorway talking to couple of strangers.
 !ssNoy' he was saying, ''they hain't ben no person long yer las few days but what blopgs we're. Mebbe, though. he mo4t 'a' ben seed over yere t' Bacon's. Ben thar? Moi Waal, my boys cominn in f'm thar purity soon, an he c'n tell ye. Come in an feed; Jaek'il be yere right soon.''
 Mat staid to help her mother with the supper, and during the course of the meal learned that the two strangers were officers trailing 8 horse thief, who had stolen 2 valuable horse at a ranch forty miles east and sold it at Pickett station, and who was believed to have come this way.
 AS she listened to the conversation g sudden nameless fear came npon her, making her feel i'll and faint. As soon as snnner was over she took her shawl