CHAPTER CONTENTS PAGI I. A PRAIRIE MATINEE . . i II. THE LAMBKIN AND THE LADY ... 20 III. quotGENERAL CUSTERquot 34 IV. TROUBLE ON THE TWIN BAR. ... 51 V. THE RIVER ROAD 67 VI. CAPTAIN KITTY MAKES A CALL . . 78 VII. KING o THE PLAINS ...... 104 VIII. TREACHEROUS MOONLIGHT 116 IX. THE GREEN FORK DANCE . . . .130 X. A PREVIOUS INCIDENT 14 XI. THE TWIN BAR HAS A VISITOR . .154 XII. CATHERINE TAKES THE SADDLE . . .179 XIII. THE UPPER FORD 193 XIV. THE SENATOR MAKES A PURCHASE . . 209 XV. quotNEVER A WORD OF LOVEquot ... 225 XVI. OKLAHOMA 239 XVII. THE LONG, GRIM LINE 251 XVIII. AT THE BLAST OF A BUGLE .... 262 XIX. BILLY is GALLANT 271 vii CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE XX. quotF I WERE GOING TO BE HANGEDquot 275 XXI. THE LAMBKIN SEES HUMOR.... 283 XXII. A FEW HOSTILITIES 293 XXIII. THE PASSING OF A WHIPPOORWILL . 301 XXIV. THE SOUNDS OF A DIRGE . . . .310 XXV. THE TURTLE MAKES A SPEECH . .321 XXVI. IN MISSOURI 336 XXVII. BALANCE ALL 350 viii BUTTERNUT JONES CHAPTER I A PRAIRIE MATINEE THE Lambkin s cabin stood first on the left of the lane as you went toward the house. It was without architectural ornament, being built on the same simple plan as the cook s and the other cowboys quarters, but you have been would know it in a crowd. It may the wild-rose vine, climbing the wall by the little east window, or the double row of larkspurs running from the door and airily enclosing a spotless walk, which gave it dis tinction it is only known that there was about Butternut s abode which something pleasingly arrested the eye. The Lambkin Butternut Where did he get these The last he had brought with him on the day he anchored at the Bquot the other had been plastered quot Circleto him during his first monthof service, and though he had early given the lie to its fitness, he was too late, for it had grown to him, and he can never lose it now. It may be that the very paradox helped to keep it in place, such are the surprising ways of the West. From East Texas he hailed, which is as different as Massachusetts from the cattle country, but having passed his latter years at a Middle State college, you would hardly have gathered that he was from the pinewoods. Tender in years and greener than spring in his new field, he had arrived in quest of a veteran s place and honors. Hav ing worked his way through school, by the same process he proposed to eventually con trol a ranch or two, and it was this lamb-like confidence, this superb innocence, that first stupefied, then fascinated the foreman into taking him on trial. Within a week it was learned that his extreme fastidiousness came not from weakness, and that his smooth, quiet manners and gentle, elastic speech arose from neither timidity nor the arrogance of conceit. At the end of a month, enrolled as a regular, he had, with that ready adaptation which was part of his nature, assumed the cowpunch- quot er s garb, while he talked quot hawss like a native, his speech, rarely faulty as to gram mar, beginning to flow in the soft twang of stock-land. But while frequently in jocular mood, and playfully reviling his fellows, never did he lose that veneering of quiet, de licious reserve. His care for appearances was shown in a hundred ways by the use of his razor thrice a week, as well as the way he groomed his pony, by the cleanliness of his dress, by the polish of his spurs but had all these things not done so, the fact that he owned a library oftwenty volumes would have brought him fame in the land...