The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1911-04-02

oolroom by his ear. and turned his
ocabulary loose upon him
Said Peckaway:
Son. hearken! AS all the world
nows, | mauled old Rideout out
If the least semblance Of humanity
he other day. and / am told that
he awfw humiliation OF 1t is un-
settling his reason In fact, so NOR
Did has he become, t.iat ne has ship
ped that unspeakable daughter OF
his away by freight to some cheap
boarding school, where his shame
will not kill her. And that has Civ.
en- me an idea that would only come
to Genius.
For twenty years I've been peck
ing away at the pachydermic cut
fcle of this here earth, as | gathered
the red corpuscles from us veins, In
order that my posterity might browse
on patty-de-foi-gras and have their
clothes built according to plans and
specifications. And while, of course,
| expect to make you my dissolute
heir you have first got 70 earn your
patrimony. What you have got to
do now is to go down East to some
big college, where they have good
trainers and rubbers, and get your
self curried into an imitation of a
gentleman that would deceive any
body. Also, you have got to take
some kind of a degree. | don't care
whether it is a DID, an Md, or an
LID, SO long as it has capital let
ters and periods in it-and the more
of them the better. Then | want you
to come back here with courtly man
ners and your trousers pressed, and
break the heart of old Rideout's fe
male progeny.
Il don't cherish anything in par
ticular against her, except her looks
and manners and ancestry, but when
Wash gazes on her after the smash
up, he will realize what happens
to upstarts of obscure lineage and
depraved instincts when they try to
break into the social environment Of
hereditary aristocracy. incidentally,
he will probably waste away to a
shadow or commit suicide, which
will be unfortunate for him, but none
of my lookout. So, away you go, first
thing in the morning"
SO 1t came about that Peckaway, in
his turn, rolled into bed that night,
soothed and restful, and for the next
four years he and Wash glared down
at each other with scorn unspeak.
abe as the plot simmered and thick
ened. 1t was at this stage of the
affair that Alfalfa. Red and I got
under the limelight.
The three of us were camped one
night about half dozen miles from
Red Dog, where the trail branched
off towards Benedict, four miles
farther on. Things that We had not
been looking for had been coming
out way fast during the last ten
days, and we were tired out and
disconsolate.
First it had been an itinerant
committee of the whole from the
Moral Suasion Association for the
Uplifting of the Unregenerate by
PHYSICAL Means. and they had car
ried the physical means looped up
on their saddles. Next, a vagrant
band of cavalry had sought our Gre
dentials, and it had been a long,
stern chase. Yet, this night, we had
scarcely banked our fire and rolled
ourselves, in our saddle-b blankets
than the chug of horses hoofs fell
upon our ears and brought us to our
feet fretful and peevish. Thirty sec
onds later a couple OF riders came
galloping out of the gloom, and at
the sight OF our smo.dering fire.
pulled up and sat motionless in their
saddles as they looked into the muz
zles of our unmasked batteries.
They were a mar and woman,
and as a tongue of flame licked up
the surrounding darkness. we could
see their features just as II they
had been cut cameo. He was a big
young fellow, this man, a good two
Yards in the perpendicular and a
yard in the horizontal across the
shoulders. straight. square-set, and
happy-go-ucky looking: as for the
girl-well. just you call mp the red
dest Tipped. roundest checked, shin
INCEST haired queen you ever dream
ed of, and imagine her in a long
riding coat and cap. under which
shone eyes that sparkled like dew
on bunch-grass. Whew, but it was
enough to make any mans hair pull
to look at a woman like that, way
out there in the very solar-p,eXus
of that rim rock and cactus bejew-
plaI Eden and no wonder that at