"'Come along, here, now!' says I, and nailed him by the neck. 'You ain't goin' to miss your happiness if main strength can give it to you.' His toes touched about once to the rod. I run him into the pen. "'There,' says I, 'is somebody you know.' "Well, sir, old Aleck looked at the gal, and the gal looked at Aleck, and the rest of us looked at each other. Soon's the kid got his breath from the shock he yells, 'I never laid eyes on that lady before!' "Oh, Hivins, Maria! That was the awfullest minute I ever lived through. Poor old E. G. W. S.! We all turned away from him, out of pity. He had the expression of a man that's fell down a hundred-foot prospect hole and been struck by lightning before he touched bottom. He grabbed aholt of the minister and swallered and swallered, unable to chirp. "At last he rallied. 'You mean to tell me, Aleck,' he says, in a voice hardly strong enough to get through his mustache, 'that I've made a mistake?' "Aleck was always willing to believe he was wrong. 'I'm _pretty_ sure, Zeke--I ain't never seen you, have I, Miss?' "'No, sir--not that I know of,' answers the girl, with her eyes on the ground. "E. G. W. rubbed his brow. "'Will you make good, anyhow, Aleck?' he coaxed. 'I got the minister and all right here--it won't take a minute.' "I'd let go of Aleck in the excitement. At these words he made one step from where he stood in the house, through the window, to ten foot out of doors, and a few more steps like that, and he was out of the question. "Then the girl put her face in her hands and begun to cry. She was a mighty pretty, innocent, plump little thing, and we'd rather have had most anything than that she should stand there cryin'. But we were all hung by the feet and wandering in our minds. The simple life of the cow-puncher doesn't fit him to grapple with problems like that. "Then, sir, up gets Ezekiel George Washington Scraggs, master of himself and the situation. "'Young lady,' says he, 'I have got you out here under false pretenses. I'm as homely as a hedge fence, and my record is dotted with marriages worse than a 'Pache outbreak with corpses and burning homes. I ain't any kind of proposition to tie up to a nice girl like you, and I swear by my honor that nothing was further from my thoughts than matrimony--not meanin' any slur on you, for if I'd found you before, I might have been a happy man--Well, here I stand: if you'll marry me, say the word!' By thunder, we gave him a cheer that shook the roof. You can laugh if you like, but it was a noble deed. "The girl reached out her left hand--so help me Moses! She liked him! I took a careful squint at old Scraggsy, in this new light, and I want to tell you that there was something kind of fine in that long lean face of his, and when he took the girl's hand he looked like a gentleman.