At six o’clock he called them, and laughed heartily as he watched their desperate efforts to struggle into their Sunday clothes. Roy had arrived ahead of time and was laughing and joking with Buck Miller who looked hot and uncomfortable in a new suit. Percy Vanderpool was there too, and decked out in his usual gorgeous style. The minister having arrived, the double wedding was performed with simple ceremony. A banquet followed, and Mason made a speech to the cowboys, assuring them he would visit the Bar X ranch the following summer. “And I will bring my wife along with me, boys,” he wound up. A hearty cheer went up at this statement, and he told them to wine and dine to their hearts’ content. Bud and Ethel were to accompany the cowboys back to Nevada as Bud could spare only ten days away from his new ranch. Mason and Josephine strolled into the library where Mason Senior always found his favorite retreat. “Well, Dad,” he said, putting his arms around his bride, “I didn’t stay away a whole year, but I made good.” “And now, you want the reward I promised you, huh,” his father grunted. “Certainly, and I want a double reward now, because there are two of us.” “Indeed, you young scoundrel. Well, I intend to make Josephine a present of a fine house which I bought next door to us. As for you, I am going to place you under charge of my manager at my steel works, and give you a chance to work your way up to his position.” “That is fine of you, Father,” he cried in delight; “what do you think of the old bear now, Josephine?” “He’s a dear,” she countered softly. “Well, Dad, you sent me out West to make good and I won an angel. Is that picture on the wall one you have had enlarged of yourself lately?” The gruff fellow turned his head to look, and there was a sound suspiciously like a kiss. When he glanced at them again they were listening to the cowboys making merry in the banquet hall. “By, by, Bar X,” Josephine murmured, smiling contentedly at her husband. THE END End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Mason of Bar X Ranch, by Henry Bennett