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Miss Dennihan, sister of "Doc" Dennihan, was undeniably If-only Jim's exact antithesis a scrupulously tidy, exacting lady, so severe in her virtues and so acrid in denunciations of the lack of down-east circumspection that nearly every man in camp shied off from her abode as he might have shied from a bath in nitric acid.
"He's a pretty little chipmunk. Jim, wherever did you git him?" Jim explained every detail of his trip to fetch the pup, stretching out his story of finding the child and bringing him hither, with pride in every item of his wonderful performance. His audience listened with profound attention, broken only by an occasional exclamation. "Old If-only Jim!
The extra horses were all in requisition to haul the ore to the quartz-mill through a stretch of ten long miles of drifted snow. Moreover, Jim had once too often sung his old "if-only" cry. The men of Borealis smiled sadly, as they thought of tiny Skeezucks, but with doubt of Jim, whose resolutions, statements, promises, had long before been estimated at their final worth.
"If only I had the resolution," said he, "I wouldn't take nothing that Parky could sell." "When we git you once talkin' 'if-only, the bluff is called," replied the smith, with a grin. "Now what are you needin' at the shack?" "You rich fellers want to run the whole shebang," objected Jim, by way of an easy capitulation.
"But of course we ain't agoin' to let 'em have our little kid in no great shakes of a hurry." When Jim and his company had disappeared from view up the rock-strewn slope, the men left below remained in a group, to discuss not only the marvellous advent of a genuine youngster in Borealis, but likewise the fitness of old If-only Jim as a foster-parent.
"That sounds like scarin' up voters at a measly political rally." "Can you do it any better?" said the smith, and he offered his hammer. "Here comes Doc Dennihan," interrupted the barkeep. "Ask Doc how it's done. If he don't know, we'll have to wait for old If-only Jim hisself."
When something like calm had settled once more on the audience, If-only Jim remarked that he guessed they would have to quit their fooling and get down to the business of church. But to open the service when quiet reigned again and expectation was once more concentrated upon him afforded something of a poser still to the lanky old Jim, elected to perform the offices of leading.
Surprise had been laid on double, in the town, by the news of what had occurred. In the first place, it was almost incredible that old "If-only" Jim had actually made his long-threatened pilgrimage to fetch his promised pup, but to have him back here, not only with the dog in question, but also with a tiny youngster found at the edge of the wilderness, was far too much to comprehend.
If-only Jim had promptly responded to her natural antipathy to all that he represented, and the strained relations between the pair had furnished much amusement for the male population of the place. It was now to this lady that Field and his friend proposed a visit.
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