“Well, things went as smooth and easy as bob-sledding until it came time for Loys to be moseying back to college again.

“Then Kyle took me into his confidence.  I never was less astonished in my whole life, and I didn’t tell him so.  ’Well, what are you going to do about it?’ says I.

“He kind of groaned and shook his head.  ‘I dunno,’ says he.  ’Do you think she likes me, Red?’ I felt like saying, ’Well, if you ain’t got all the traits but the long ears, I miss my guess,’ but I made allowances, and says I, ’Well, about that, I don’t think I ought to say anything; still, if I had only one eye left I could see plain that her education’s finished.  She don’t want any more college, that girl don’t.’

“‘Think not?’ says he, bracing up.  And then, by-and-by, they went out to ride, for Jonesy was good to the girl, I’ll say that for him.  He was willing to do anything for her in reason, according to his views.  But Kyle wasn’t in them views; he was out of the picture as far as husbands went.

“They came back at sunset, when the whole world was glowing red the same as they were.  I reached for the field glasses and took a squint at them.  There was no harm in that, for they were well-behaved young folks.  One look at their faces was enough.  There were three of us in the bull-pen—­Bob, and Wind-River Smith, and myself.  We’d brought up a herd of calves from Nanley’s ranch, and we were taking it easy.  ‘Boys,’ says I, under my breath, ‘they’ve made the riffle.’

“‘No!’ says they, and then everybody had to take a pull at the glasses.

“‘Well, I’m glad,’ says Smithy.  And darn my buttons if that old hardshell’s voice didn’t shake.  ’They’re two of as nice kids as you’d find in many a weary day,’ says he.  ’And I wish ’em all the luck in the world.’

“‘So do I,’ says I, ’and I really think the best we could do for ‘em would be to shoot Jones.’

“‘Man!  Won’t he sizz!’ says Bob.  And you can’t blame us old codgers if we had a laugh at that, although it was such a powerful serious matter to the youngsters.

“’Let’s go out and meet ’em,’ says I. And away we went.  They weren’t a particle surprised.  I suppose they thought the whole universe had stopped to look on.  We pump-handled away and laughed, and Loys she laughed kind of teary, and Kyle he looked red in the face and proud and happy and ashamed of himself, and we all felt loosened up considerable, but I told him on the quiet, ’Take that fool grin off your face, unless you want Uncle Jones to drop the moment he sees you.’

“Now they only had three days left to get an action on them, as that was the time set for Loys to go back to college.

“Next day they held a council behind the big barn, and they called in Uncle Red—­otherwise known as Big Red Saunders, or Chanta Seechee Red, which means ‘Bad-heart Red’ in Sioux language, and doesn’t explain me by a durn sight—­to get the benefit of his valuable advice.