Owen Wister

“ Being inexperienced of women, or of mothers at least, he failed to divine his worst enemies in this.
"I tell yu' we must skip," said Lin, for the second time; and he rubbed the Virginian's black head, which alone was visible.
"Skip, then, you," came muffled from within; "and keep you'self mighty sca'ce till they can appreciate our frolic."
The Southerner withdrew deeper into his bed; and Mr. McLean, informing him that he was a fool, arose and saddled his horse. From the saddle-bag he brought a parcel, and lightly laying this beside Bokay Baldy, he mounted, and was gone. ”

“ The Virginian, quite good again after his freak, rode away sedately through the autumn sunshine; and as he went he asked his Monte horse a question. "Do yu' reckon she'll have forgot you too, you pie-biter?" said he. Although the cow-puncher's leathern chaps were on his legs again, the scarf was knotted at his neck, and his appearance was not one of which a man need be ashamed, or a woman sorry to see. It was Sunday, and no school-day, and he found her in her cabin that was near the Taylors' house. Her eyes were very bright. ”

“ Ask Lin McLean. Ask him that sets bulls on folks and steals slippers what he's done with our innocent lambs, mixing them up with other people's coughing unhealthy brats. That's Charlie Taylor in Alfred's clothes; and I knew Alfred didn't cough like that, and I said to you it was strange; and the other one that's been put in Christopher's new quilts is not even a bub—bub—boy! ”

“ Molly Wood was regarding him saucily. "I don't think I like you," said she.
"That's all square enough. You're goin' to love me before we get through. I wish yu'd come a-ridin', ma'am."
"Dear, dear, dear! Men are so big and strong! And they think they only need to sit and make chests at a girl—"
"Goodness gracious! I ain't makin' any chests at yu'!" The Virginian laughed aloud with relish—he did not do so often—and the note in his laughter found more favor with Miss Wood than even his direct and potent countenance. "Please come a-ridin'," he urged. "It's the prettiest kind of a day." ”

“ Of course the whole neighborhood was bidden, and would come forty miles to a man; some would come further—the Virginian was coming a hundred and eighteen. It had struck him—rather suddenly, as shall be made plain—that he should like to see how they were getting along up there on Bear Creek. "They" was how he put it to himself, and consequently he ought to have been aware that the trousers he bought and the unnecessarily excellent scarf were an extravagance.
In the spring, two days after that miring of the stage, he had learned accidentally that the passenger was the Bear Creek school-marm ”

“ There's the Westfalls. Where are you running to?"
"To fix up. Got any soap around hyeh?"
"Yes," shouted Swinton, for the Virginian was now some distance away; "towels and everything in the dugout." And he went to welcome his first formal guests.
The Virginian reached his saddle, under a shed. "So she's never mentioned it," said he, untying his slicker for the trousers and scarf. "I didn't notice Lin anywheres around her." He was over in the dugout now, whipping off his overalls; and soon he was beautifully clean, and ready, except for the tie in his scarf and the part in his hair. ”

“ She leaves Baldy sit on the fence while she and Lin McLean—"
They laughed loudly at the blackguard picture he drew; and the laugh stopped short, for the Virginian stood over Trampas.
"You can rise up now and tell them you lie," he said.
The man was still for a moment in the dead silence. "I thought you claimed you and her wasn't acquainted," said he then.
"Stand on your laigs, you polecat, and say you're a liar."
Trampas's hand moved behind him.
"Quit that," said the Southerner, "or I'll break your neck."
The eye of a man is the prince of deadly weapons. ”

“ The two outcasts drew near to it, and looked in with gloom.
"There she goes," said Lin.
"With Westfall again," said the Virginian. "James has a wife and a fam'ly, and James gets the dancin' too." Soon they saw Mr. Taylor favored. "Another married man," the Southerner commented. They prowled round to the store-room, and passed through the kitchen to where the assembly was robustly tramping. "Still old Taylor. Let's have some whiskey." They had it, and returned. "Uncle Carmody has got her now," drawled the Virginian. "He polkas like a landslide. ”

“ The liar stood, and sneered experimentally, looking at Public Opinion. But this changeful deity was no longer with him, and he heard it variously assenting, "That's so," and "She's a lady," and otherwise excellently moralizing. So he held his peace. When, however, the Virginian had departed to the roasting steer, and Public Opinion relaxed into that comfort which we all experience when the sermon ends, Trampas sat down amid the reviving cheerfulness ”

“ Then the tall man gently withdrew, leaving her to become herself again. She limply regarded the river pouring round the slanted stage, and a number of horsemen with ropes, who righted the vehicle and got it quickly to dry land, and disappeared at once with a herd of cattle, uttering lusty yells. ”

“ Thus, for this occasion, did the Virginian part from his lady—and nothing said about the handkerchief one way or another.
Fragment from a postscript, in a letter received at Bennington, Vermont:
"Please send my Browning and Jane Austen. I have been neglecting serious culture shockingly. But you have no idea how delightful it is to ride, especially on a spirited horse, which I can do now quite well. My dear, these cowboys are most extraordinary! ”

“ We're shy on ducks."
"Yu' have the barrel. Has Lin McLean seen that?"
"No. We tried for ducks away down as far as the Laparel outfit. A real barbecue—"
"There's large thirsts on Bear Creek. Lin McLean will pass on ducks."
"Lin's not thirsty this month."
"Signed for one month, has he?"
"Signed! He's spooning our school-marm."
"They claim she's a right sweet-faced girl."
"Yes; yes; awful agreeable. And next thing you're fooled clean through."
"Yu' don't say!"
"She keeps a-teaching the darned kids, and it seems like a good growed-up man can't interest her." ”

“ The bachelors of the saddle listened, always diffident, but eating heartily to the end, and soon after rode away together in a thoughtful clump. The wives of Bear Creek were few as yet, and the homes scattered; the school-house was only a sprig on the vast face of a world of elk and bear and uncertain Indians; but that night, when the earth near the fire was littered with the cow-punchers' beds, the Virginian was heard drawling to himself: "Alfred and Christopher. ”

“ She wasn't the kind a man ought to josh about such things. She had a right clear eye." Thus, tall and loose in the saddle, did he jog along the sixty miles which still lay between him and the dance.
Two camps in the open, and his Monte horse, untired, brought him to the Swintons' early for the barbecue, and received good food at length, while the rider was welcomed with good whiskey. Good whiskey—for had not steers jumped to seventy-five? Inside the Goose Egg kitchen many small things were preparing, and a steer was roasting whole outside. ”

“ That's not the point I'm makin', ma'am. You are a grown-up woman, a responsible woman. You've come ever so far, and all alone, to a rough country to instruct young children that play games—tag, and hide-and-seek, and fooleries they'll have to quit when they get old. Don't you think pretendin' yu' don't know a man—his name's nothin', but him—a man whom you were glad enough to let assist yu' when somebody was needed—don't you think that's mighty close to hide-and-seek them children plays? ”

“ Molly Wood now had a desire to run somewhere, but there was nowhere for her to run. "I cannot sit guessing why people do not behave themselves—who seem to know better," said she.
"Oh, ma'am, I've played square and owned up to yu'. And that's not what you're doin' by me. I ask your pardon if I say what I have a right to say in language not as good as I'd like to talk to yu' with. But at South Fork Crossin' who did any introducin'? Did yu' complain I was a stranger then?"
"I—no!" she flashed out; then, quite sweetly, "The driver told me it wasn't really so dangerous there, you know." ”

“ Ain't it most three years since yu' married? Yu' mustn't let time creep ahaid o' yu', James."
The father once more grinned at his guests, who themselves turned sheepish and polite; for Mrs. Westfall came in, brisk and hearty, and set the meat upon the table. After that it was she who talked. The guests ate scrupulously, muttering "Yes, ma'am," and "No, ma'am," in their plates, while their hostess told them of the increasing families upon Bear Creek, and the expected school-teacher, and little Alfred's early teething, and how it was time for them all to become husbands like James. ”

“ She'll go with some—takin' a kid along."
"Bah!" said Trampas.
The Virginian stopped looking at the sky, and watched Trampas from where he lay.
"I think she encourages a man some," said poor Nebrasky.
"Encourages? Because she lets yu' teach her how to shoot?" said Wiggin. "Well—I don't guess I'm a judge. I've always kind o' kep' away from them good women. Don't seem to think of anything to chat about to 'em. The only folks I'd say she encourages is the school kids. She kisses them."
"Riding, and shooting, and kissing the kids," sneered Trampas. ”

“ When Baldy awoke, later, he found the parcel to be a pair of flowery slippers.
In selecting the inert Virginian as the fool, Mr. McLean was scarcely accurate: it is the absent who are always guilty. And McLean's reputation—nay, his very life— But this is what happened:
Before ever Lin could have been a mile in retreat, the rattle of wheels roused all of them, and here came the Taylors. Before the Taylors' knocking had brought the Swintons to their door other wheels sounded, and here were Mr. and Mrs. ”

“ A kid stage-driver come from Point of Rocks one day and went back the next. Then the foreman of the 76 outfit, and the horse-wrangler from the Bar Circle L, and two deputy marshals, with punchers stringin' right along—all got their tumble. ”

“ And he fixed up to tell her about his not bein' sure of the size, and how she was to let him know if they dropped off her, and he'd exchange 'em, and when he got right near her door, why, he couldn't find his courage, and he slips the parcel under the fence and starts serenadin' her. But she ain't inside her cabin at all. She's at supper next door, with the Taylors, and Baldy singin' 'Love has conqwered pride and angwer' to a lone house. ”