Don't mention that to Miss Lorna Goodwin when you see her, because I
ain't took her in my confidence that far yet, but say a good word for
your uncle, and by-by! Get up, there, Mary! Straighten them traces,
Victoria! Oop! Oop! here we go clattering fresh! So-long, till
later!" and away he went, the dust a-flyin'.
We landed in Cactus, ready and anxious to be respectable. We first
took in the barber shop, had a bath and a trimmin' up.
"Fix these whiskers of mine," says Ag to the barber, "as though they
was inclined to be religious, and a few strokes from a nice, plump,
clean little widder's hand would make 'em fall. You can say what you
please about widders," says Aggy, "but a woman who's had one man and
wants another has holt of the proper sand. It's a compliment when a
widder shines up to a man. She's no amateur."
Then we bought clothes and played seven-up in the hotel till they was
fixed to fit us. We wanted to stroll through Cactus right. After this
was done we mashed our rocks, panned the result, and got $375 from the
bank--all told, we had pretty nigh six hundred between the three of us.
The sight of us, trimmed, wouldn't cramp you none. That cow-punch he
went an inch to the good over six foot. I came along about an eighth
below him, and Aggy loomed far in the night. We all had features on
our faces, and--well, Cactus sure was a pretty little town, with its
parks and irrigated gardens, and when we strolled, we noticed the girls
kind of let their sentences drag--probably because they didn't see us.
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