The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1898-04-02

plug of navy to boot with my girl and
got the second best FLY in the bunch,
but she wasn't a marker to Bills.
She'd been hanging there a month be-
fore we found out he was stuck on her.
One rainy day Big Ike was cleaning his
gun and when he got her loaded up he
just drew a bead on Bills girl and let
her go for practice. He clipped a cor
ner of the card just above her head, and
the next second a tuft of hair foated
down from just above his right ear, and
Bill, looking over his cooked gun, said,
quiet like: Shall us drive center next
pop, Ike?"
Ike looked foolish and we all laughed,
but there was no more shooting at that
dame. Then one day she disappeared,
and the next time | saw her it was in
Bills hand One night over at Cedar
Springs, where he and | were holding
a bunch of Gogies. We were sitting at
camp fire smoking and he tool her
out of his vest pocket and looked at her
like a hungry Injun at Il pot of dough
gods.
Monte" sage he, whats her name,
think ye?"
Purity Sal says I, at a guess, but he
shook his head.
Nary Sal. Shes too high bred for
that. Bet We she's got a couple high
flown names. same's 4 thoroughbred
boss. Suthin' like Lady Maude' or
Stella 'Nangeline' or some such truck"
"Mebby so," says |, but how'll ye
prose it,"
That's what gifts me-" he says,
moIrnful like. "Iiowdye spose u Teller
cuG find out?"
l smeIled Il little fun ahead, and says
1: Why, that's dead easy. Write to
the Teller that builds those c~igarroots
and ask him. Like enough it's his
daughter"
Bill looked up quick. Monte, l
ha.n't writ Il line in ten year. am my
hands out. If | git the paper will ye
write for me?"
"Why, sure" says l, and we shook
haads on it and made a tobacco smoke.
Then he talked-you never heard the
like!
"Pard," says he, that gals my meat
and I'm hcrn! | felt it the second |
laid yes on her, and | kEowed | was
goin' to dror her pictur. Way down in
my bones | feel that she'n me air goin'
to cum together. | don't mind tcllin'
You this for | know yer a frien' o mine
anil stan by me in Il pinch. | don't
want the other fellers to know tan
yell write tO-mOrrer IN say as how I've
got sixteen hundred cases in the bank at
RawIins an five hun'erd half grades
in my own brand. That eff she's willin'
l am, an I'll pay her freight out here
and put everythin' in her name an she
wont hev ter ride no bisickle emmy more
for a livin'. sabe?"
If he hadn't been so dead in earnest
I'd nave laughed in his face, but | saw
he meant it and so l just laid low and
kicked myself and hollered in my mind.
The next day | wrote as he had said and
inclosed a letter of recommendation
Ora Haley gave him when he stumped
old man Temple for his present job as
foreman. 1t was a real nice letter and
come as near to telling the truth about
old Bill as Il mar could expect.
He posted it himself at Maybeli and |
like to fell off my horse one day when
1 rode up after the mail, a month later,
and found Il letter there addressed
"WilIiam Riggles, Esq, in a wOman's
hand write and bearing the Richmond
Va.) pOstmark!
Bill was all alone in the corral when
l rode up and put it in his hand without
a word. He turned kind of pale around
the gills and let his rope fall and stood
there looking at the letter like a man in
a dream. Then he braced up, put it in
the inside pocket of his vest and picked
up his rope. But he was plumb off
and / soon saw that he couldn't catch
nothing. Why, he was so ratified that
he couldn't hardly catch his breath, let
alone a wild bronco, and | told him I'd
tend to the work for him. But he hung
around and helped some. and after sup
per he hauls the letter out and says:
Read it for me-"
I'll own up to a surprise party right
then and there. She wasn't that kind
of a girl at all, and she really was a girl,
after all. The letter was a long n
and l can't remember the exact words
and l haven't got it to quote from. Bills
got it in his bosom and he's-but that's
getting ahead of my story.
The substance of it was that "she ac-
knowledged the receipt of Bits letter.
which had been handed to her, the
original of the picture we had inclosed,
by the factory superintendent" (Our
letter had been sealed and addressed
$40 the lady whose picture this is" and
inclosed in a letter to the cigarette
maker). "She thanked the gentleman
for his very kind and fiattering proposal
and begged time to consider it. She
stated frankly that she was only a fac
tory hand, a cigarette roller, and had
posed for that picture only because she
was compelled TO do so for business
reasons-she had an invalid mother to
| support and work was hard to get"
Here l had to explain to Bill, who
| clutched his gun with a horrible i'm
precation against the factory owner