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Then Hank he come in, and seein', says to me, 'Are you one of the kind that squats before them silly dolls? 'I would tell yu', I answered him; 'but it would not inter-est yu'. And I cleared out, and left him and Willomene to begin their housekeepin'. "Already they had quit havin' much to say to each other down in their tent. The only steady talkin' done in that house was done by the parrot.
So the lady and her toilet was rescued, but that did no good to Willomene. They stood her trunk down along with the rest a brass-nailed little old concern and there was Willomene out of a job and afoot a long, long ways from her own range; and so she kept sitting, and onced in a while she'd cry some more.
But he could not make her quit her religion; and Willomene she had got to bein' very silent before I come away. She used to talk to me some at first, but she dropped it. I don't know why. I expect maybe it was hard for her to have us that close in camp, witnessin' her troubles every day, and she a foreigner.
So they took Hank from the tree that night, and early next morning they buried him near camp on the top of a little mound. But the thought of Willomene lying in Pitchstone Canyon had kept sleep from me through that whole night, nor did I wish to attend Hank's burial.
But this hyeh Pitchstone hole, if Willomene had went down into that well, I'll tell yu', that you may judge. "She seen the trail a-drawin' nearer and nearer the aidge, between the timber and the jumpin'-off place, and she seen how them little loose stones and the crumble stuff would slide and slide away under the hawss's feet.
'Twas plain to see he'd got a genu-wine scare comin' through Pitchstone Canyon, and it turned him sour, so he'd hardly talk to us, but just mumbled 'How! kind o' gruff, when the boys come up to congratulate him as to his marriage. "But Willomene, she says when she saw me, 'Oh, I am so glad! and we shook hands right friendly. And I wished I'd told her good-bye that day at the Mammoth.
And it's 'Where have you put the keys, Willomene? The lady was rich and stinkin' lookin', and had come from New Yawk in her husband's private cyar. "Well, Willomene fussed around in her pockets, and them keys was not there. So she started explaining in tanglefoot English to her lady how her lady must have took them from her before leavin' the cyar.
"The railroad brought the stuff for Galena Creek, and Hank would not look at it on account of his courtin'. I took it alone myself by Yancey's and the second bridge and Miller Creek to the camp, nor I didn't tell Willomene good-bye, for I had got disgusted at her blindness." The Virginian shifted his position, and jerked his overalls to a more comfortable fit.
Then he continued: "They was married the Tuesday after at Livingston, and Hank must have been pow'ful pleased at himself. For he gave Willomene a wedding present, with the balance of his cash, spending his last nickel on buying her a red-tailed parrot they had for sale at the First National Bank.
I kept myself with the boys, and I played more cyards, while Hank he sca'cely played at all. One night I came on them Hank and Willomene walkin' among the pines where the road goes down the hill. Yu' should have saw that pair o' lovers. Her big shape was plain and kind o' steadfast in the moon, and alongside of her little black Hank! And there it was.
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